Reclaiming the Ancients
by Torrigan Lattonen
Summary: Rated M for language, violence, and adult situations. What would change if Aerith wasn't the last of the ancients? What would happen to the best laid plans of aliens and mad scientists?
1. Opening statements and disclaimers

AUTHORS OPENING STATEMENTS:

Hey Torrigan here just figured I'd have a quick word before I get to the meat of the matter.

Everyone has to go through the obligatory disclaimer basically saying they own nothing aside from the original characters and any of the original story lines they come up with. I'm no exception to the rule. As it stands I do not own any shares in square-enix stock, nor do I have any personal ownership of either final fantasy 6 or final fantasy 7 nor do I rub elbows with Gokurakuin Sakurako author and artist of sekirei, and thusly I have no rights to any of the material from any of the stories I'm using. I most certainly have no rights to any kind of sale of this tale, gainful or otherwise.

Now that the legalities are taken care of, I'd like to say this;

This is a fan FIC, in other words I'm taking elements from cannon that fit the story **I** want to tell, and discarding others, sometimes arbitrarily. If you can't handle that, or if you simply wanted to see another retelling of one of these stories, well then your outta luck. Honestly if done correctly I have no issue with writers who do that, its when that becomes the expectation rather than the exception that I draw issue.

Anyways...

I'm going to be drawing elements of this story primarily from 3 sources, yea I know the fic is listed as an ff7/ sekirei cross, but they didn't give me the option for a third.

So with the above already listed and the surprise ruined from the get go, I guess I should just rip the lid off of Pandora's Box and finish the trio eh?

This will be a mash of FF7 / sekirei / and FF6.

Now id like to think I know what you're going to say... but frankly that would be a lie. So I'm just gonna say what I want anyways.

My biggest concern writing this, from the get go, is the size of the cast I have to work with.

FF6 has the BIGGEST roster of characters from any FF game to date. And sekirei has over 117 characters in the series (108 sekirei, plus the ashikabi and whatnot)

So I've got a bit of a challenge ahead of me.

Anyways I'm looking forward to getting this story out. I've got a few chapters written out already, and ill try and get them edited and up for everyones reading "enjoyment" ( -very very hopeful that you will enjoy it) regardless I need to do a plug for another story and a shout out to a friend of mine while I'm here. My primary proofreader and editor is my buddy:

Nameless Flame Wielder

The author of the Bleach / Fate stay/night cross-over:

Fate / Black Reflection

Check it out when you get the chance if you feel so inclined.

And while I do appreciate a good constructive critical review, I'd like everyone to please remember the MST3K mantra:

**ITS JUST A SHOW, I SHOULD REALLY RELAX. **

Please enjoy the read;

Torrigan Lattonen


	2. Prelude

"WATCH OUT!" the young king cried as he leaped forward trying to grab the falling hand of the woman he had come to see as a friend… and oh, so much more.

The lady was a petite young woman barely into her twenties, her clear crystal blue eyes widening in fear as the ground beneath her feet collapsed. The fear didn't detract from her comely face with its exotic features which were softened by a touch of familiarity. Long hair almost a mint green color flowed upward as she fell. She was in a word, beautiful.

To make it all the sweeter, she was his. The girl had pledged her hand to the king, provided they both survived the ordeal. He reached for her, but he wasn't going to be able to make in time to see their promise through. He was too far away and she was falling too fast. Worse, none of his magic was working... which in hindsight made sense: he had just played a part in killing a self styled GOD.

***************** Prelude εуλ 1975 *****************

The night air in Nibelheim is usually very quiet, especially in the middle of December; the cold mountain air seems to dissuade even the wolves from making too much noise. But this night was different. The Shin-Ra mansion at the northern end of town was practically humming from all of the excitement. Lucrecia Crescent, the scientist wife of Hojo, was going into labor.

Normally this would be a momentous occasion for both husband and wife… but not for Lucrecia. She had visions: visions of blood, death, hatred, and an endless cycle of misery. These visions caused her pain, more than she believed she would ever feel in her life. This pain was compounded by the fact that she was responsible for the man she loved being shot, "killed", and used as an experiment.

And no, Hojo wasn't dead despite being her husband. He was standing impassively next to the doctor at the foot of her bed. The look of anticipation on his face was the only indication that he even acknowledged what was going on at all. It wasn't a look of love or affection, it was a scientific greed: the anticipation of seeing the results of an experiment, no more, no less.

Lucrecia had made mistakes, too many to count. She was solely responsible for all of the sorrow that her son would feel. There would be no love in his life and she would die here on the table, forgotten and abandoned. He... her precious baby boy...

Sephiroth...

…would be taken to one of Hojo's labs to be a guinea pig his whole life. She hated it, but there was nothing she could do. The pregnancy had stolen her strength, and her son was far, far too precious for her to stop him from being born.

But there was nothing she could do... As the world went black, the last thought to cross the mind of Lucrecia Crescent was a simple plea.

'_...Vincent, forgive me..._'

***************** Scene Break *****************

Takami Sahashi was exhausted. There was no other way to put it. Her traveling companion, Hiroto Minaka, was exhausting. Physically, mentally, and she was pretty sure that her spirit was exhausted too... no real way to check that one but hey, it fit. Somehow she had agreed to this… "expedition" Minaka had proposed. Originally this so-called "expedition" was supposed to be a date of sorts. Take a ride out from Fort Condor, do a little spelunking in the Mithril mines, and then cap it off with a moonlit dinner on the hills nearby.

But NOOOOO, he had to get all excited about a rumor... so instead of a "little" spelunking, she had been down in this stinking mine for more than 27 hours following this hare-brained idea of his. Their food was almost gone and what water they did have _was_ gone, and alcohol in the exhausted state she was in would do more harm than good.

Needless to say, it was not a good time.

"Takami-kun Takami-kun! Come here, I found it!" The idiot had disappeared around a corner when his voice rebounded through the cave.

"... Great. Now he's going to attract attention. Just what I need... *incomprehensible muttering follows*" Walking around the corner, Takami couldn't actually place where the idiot was: the echo of his excited babble was messing with her head.

"Down here Takami-kun! I found it! The king of all fear!" looking down to see where the voice was coming from, Takami Sahashi found herself looking into a recently collapsed sinkhole.

As she stood there looking, Minaka scampered deeper into the cave without so much as a second thought.

"WAIT YOU IDIOT! ITS DANGEROUS... down ... here..." Takami trailed off as she followed him into the cave. The walls of the cave, which up until now had been the predictably rough natural walls interspaced with the more smooth walls of the worked areas, were VERY suddenly replaced by a nearly perfectly smooth dull metal. "Wha?"

Feeling more than a little non-pulsed at what was before her eyes; Takami barely registered the excitable Minaka watching her intently from deeper inside the cave. "It is the king of fear Takami-kun... Something truly unknown," the man stated grandly.

Now, while Minaka is an irrepressible idiot, and about as hyper as a squirrel on a gallon of straight espresso, he is also a certified genius. When Takami's eyes met his and found them to be more serious than she had ever believed possible all of her sarcasm, all of the biting remarks died before they were even properly formed.

"Bring your flashlight Takami-kun." As he turned deeper into the cave Takami noticed her partner was all business now. "It only gets more interesting from here."

The caves were obviously artificial: they were too symmetrical, the walls too smooth. There wasn't enough moss or mildew and there was a comfortable tread on the floor rather than rough rock.

Not exactly something you'd expect to find in an ore mine, to be sure.

The complex went deep underground, eventually coming to a more open cavern and a passageway that seemed to be caved in.

"Hmm, that just begs to be looked into... wouldn't you agree Takami-kun?" pointing to the caved-in section of passageway, Minaka began setting supplies out and getting ready for a little excavation.

Takami on the other hand, as exhausted as she was, decided it was a good time to find someplace to sit down. "Have fun you moron, I'll be over here when you're done..." pointing towards one of the walls, Takami began her slow trek to relaxation. Walking over to one of the walls and nearly collapsing against it, she decided a flashlight wasn't good enough now. Besides if you have a lantern, save the flashlight.

In this day and age, simple battery operated lights are common, as are lamps of the same make, but nothing beat a good old fashion gas lantern. The heat it put off could pull double duty as an emergency heater if need be, plus it was easily as bright as any of the battery operated toys so popular lately.

If she had been any less tired or any more concerned about the surroundings and possible fossil records, or anything at all, then Takami would have had all the credit for one of the greatest historical findings on record. As it was however, she simply placed her bag on the ground, and used it as a pillow.

"My my, Takami-kun, I didn't realize you were that brave..." Cracking one extremely annoyed eye to look at her estranged loony, Takami noticed something behind Minaka that swept all of her exhaustion away. Buried in the wall, surrounded by a broken container of some kind was a skeleton. An apparently _human_ skeleton.

"!" Not one for girlish screaming or any of that nonsense, (Minaka however was prone to it... much to her chagrin), Takami found herself approaching the skeleton looking for answers.

"Aww... and here I was hoping you'd scream, all cute and feminine and jump into my arms..." Minaka couldn't help if he felt a little disappointed. He may have had ulterior motives, but the "date" idea had been a genuine one... until he got sidetracked.

"Not happening, you would end up dropping me..."

The banter continued for barely a moment before Takami got a better look at the wall. The skeleton wasn't alone. In fact it was flanked on both sides by similar displays. Turning up the lantern, Takami and Minaka found the entire chamber to be decorated in the same way. It wasn't one or two or even three, it was more like three _hundred_. Some of the containers were in better condition than the first and many were in much worse shape. They all had one thing in common, however: all of them were broken.

"My god... what happened here?" Takami breathed out.

Taking advantage of the lamplight Minaka walked closer to one of the containers. "From what I see..." he started, pointing to the shards of material inside the broken container, "it looks like something, or someone, broke these on purpose."

Covering her mouth in horror at the implications of that statement Takami's gaze found itself wandering the cave in a new kind of horror. "It was a slaughter..."

Nodding his head in agreement Minaka added, "Yes it was. But hopefully this isn't all that's in this cave."

Still very much addled and slow from the exhaustion of the day, Takami wasn't able to put two and two together at the moment. "Huh?"

Minaka gestured to the caved in passage. "That passage isn't completely collapsed. I can see deeper after about ten feet or so, but you don't need to worry about that. Just lie down for a bit, you're looking pale."

Her annoyance returning in full force, Takami shoved the lamp violently into Minaka's gut. "Well if you're feeling so chipper why don't you get to work then?" Shaking her head in annoyance Takami stretched back out on the ground determined to get a few minutes of rest. It was bound to be all she was going to get if the idiot had anything to say about it, after all...

"Rest well Takami, I'll call you when I find something."

"...Please don't..."

Five hours of constant shuffling and digging later...

"Success! Now to see what kind of monarch I'll be paying tribute to..." Inside the room on the other side of the cave-in Minaka beheld a sight that would stay with him to the end of his days. Set in concentric circles on a raised dais in the center of the room were very large crystals, similar in shape to the containers in the other room. And again, similar to the other room were the occupants. This time they weren't skeletons... no, this time they were children. A quick count found that the room was occupied by 108 of these crystals. 98 of them were barely infants. 9 of them were toddlers, and the last seemed to be a girl in her early teens.

"I was wrong... it's not the king of fear I see before me... it's the queen."


	3. Chapter 1

On a cliff overlooking the humble mining village of Narshe, a trio of titans stood, planning, scheming, and observing the defenses of the target.

"Amateurs. Nothing more than a glorified militia." The speaker was a man in his late twenties to early thirties and dressed in military fatigues, a helmet and radio covering his head.

"Glorified my ass... these are barely more than farmers. The only thing they have is a strong swinging arm." The second speaker was much like the first, young and dressed as a military officer, low enough in rank to get the crap jobs, but high enough that it was on his head if it went wrong.

"I almost feel sorry for them; we could do these ourselves, but that damned clown..."

"HEY! Cut it Biggs... he might be listening..."

"Right... Wedge, you really think he has ears all the way out here?"

"You never know, he does keep that witch as his pet after all." Turning their attention to the aforementioned "witch" neither Biggs nor wedge could help but shiver at the memory of the rumors surrounding the young woman.

"Ya know Wedge; I heard she roasted fifty of our best guys just the other day..."

Nodding his head at the mindless banter and rumors his partner was spreading wedge decided to drop a bomb on him. "Sad thing is, that's not just a rumor, I was there and I saw it. The clown set it up and the emperor did nothing... an entire squadron of tech armor, roasted in minutes. And her in nothing more than a dress."

"YOU WERE THERE?! What the hell were you doing?"

"Observing. The general wanted a platform to watch from, so he used my tech armor." Gesturing to accentuate the point, Wedge pointed to a place high on the shoulder of the machine he was riding in. "Still feels like I haven't gotten my baby clean yet. Worst part is, as she was roasting our guys, the general was laughing... LAUGHING!"

"...Disgusting..."

"Anyways, enough chatter, we have a job to do and whether we like it or not, the witch is supposed to help." He gestured to the woman to take the lead. "No point in risking my neck... Girl... you take point."

"..."

With barely a nod of her head to acknowledge the order, the girl drove her armored suit up to and over the cliff edge, a drop that would have killed any traveler unfortunate enough to find themselves upon the cliff in the first place. The armor however, took the five hundred foot fall without any protest. The hydraulics in the reversed joint legs absorbed and dissipated the impact gently and smoothly, the body perched like a bird of prey, dropping low without so much as a shudder or groan.

The ground, however, showed just how much damage a fall like that would do: rock chips, dirt, and snow were kicked up in a cloud, encircling the girl and growing bigger as the officers Biggs and Wedge dropped in behind her.

"They don't have anything that would be a threat to us; don't bother with the civilians, just get to the mine. Our orders are to recover the esper these hicks dug up."

"..."

Driving her machine forward, the "witch" brought herself to the village entrance at a speed that could be described as a "run" which, in a fifteen foot tall steel and steam behemoth, is more than a little intimidating.

"STOP HER!"

"DEFEND THE TOWN!"

"DONT LET THE EMPIRE GET TO THE MINES!"

The cries of the defenders barely registered over the sound of her and her commander's machines. Any guardsman who dared to get in her way was either swept aside by one of her machine's arms, or they simply died in a firestorm unleashed from her hands it was all the same in the end. The only time her pace slowed in the slightest was when a rather large and vicious Doberman jumped off of an overhanging bridge onto Biggs's machine.

"AHH! GET IT OFF!" The dog that had been trained and lead by the guardsman was driven mad by a rather spectacular explosion that killed its handler and injured it, triggering the already overactive "fight" instinct in the large animal. Stopping only long enough to grab the dog by the scruff of the neck, the witch simply burnt the dog to ash. "Thanks."

"..."

"You alright, Biggs?"

"Damn mutt got me good. Pretty sure this is gonna need stitches, dammit!"

"..."

Her hand glowing with and ethereal green light, the "witch" ran her hand over Biggs's injuries. It looked like an eraser going over paper. After her hand passed, only clean unbroken skin remained. The blood and the broken flesh repaired without as much as a word.

"Thanks?"

"..."

"You good Biggs?"

"Good to go sir, the girl patched me up."

"Good, we need to keep moving. The longer we are here the worse the resistance is going to get."

"..."

The town was fairly well organized, built into the hills surrounding a centralized road leading up to the mine at the most northern part of town. Ahead at the entrance to the mine, some of the guardsman could be seen hurrying about preparing for something.

"Sir... are you seeing this?"

"Hmm, looks like we lost the element of surprise... drat..." Snapping his fingers across his chest in an exaggerated manner, Wedge seemed _truly, truly_ upset. The maniacal smile crossing his face spoke volumes to the contrary.

"Orders sir?"

"No changes get to the mine, eliminate all opposition."

"..."

The guards'preparations apparently completed, many of them could be seen running across bridges, along the side streets and into homes. A few simply ran as fast as they could away from the mine.

"Wonder what got them spooked?" Scratching his head in curiosity Biggs questioned aloud.

"Don't drop your guard. If they are running then they know something."

"...SIR!"

"..."

Standing at the head of the mine, appeared to be the guard captain of Narshe. He wasn't running. In fact, he had a smile almost as mad as Wedge had sported earlier. "WHELK! GET 'EM!"

"..."

As the creature that the captain had called forth emerged from the cave, the reactions were mixed, Biggs being the most prominent: "What... the... hell...? Is that a goddamn snail?"

It was indeed a ten foot tall thirty foot long, slimy disgusting mollusk.

"Don't underestimate it; we were briefed on this thing. It absorbs energy through its shell and generates ENORMOUS amounts of electricity."

"Right... don't hit the shell..." Shaking his head at the oddity of it all, Biggs began priming the weapon systems on his armor.

"Witch... you're up first," Wedge coldly stated.

"..."

Without the verbal reaction normally expected from such an order, it was hard to gauge just how she felt about being treated this way, but the physical reaction was apparent enough. Miniature missiles launched from generators on the armor's shoulders rushed towards the enemy followed quickly by her pouncing with her armor.

The whelk simply drew its head into the shell covering the majority of its body at the sight of the assault, allowing the missiles to discharge harmlessly against it and accumulating the energy it would use to end the threat against itself and its masters.

Normally the "magitek" armors, as they were called, weren't meant for hand to hand combat or any kind of protracted non-supported combat at all.

But, thanks to the amount of magic she was able to channel into the frame of her machine, the "witch" was able to do things like make thirty foot leaps from a standing position, or things like landing on the shell of a giant snail monster.

Or things like taking the claws that normally are useful for very little, aside from directing the discharges of the armor's energy weapons, to rip, tear, shred, crack, and otherwise destroy anything she came in contact with.

Landing on its back the "witch" drove her claws into the shell just below the first ring of its armor with a *CRUNCH*, the sound of the shell being violated was akin to the sound of a bone breaking…

It was sickening. After violating the shell, she didn't draw back and ready another strike, she simply left her claws buried in the gooey mess of the whelk's back, and discharged all of the stored energy her machine contained.

The heat the whelk radiated was palpable back where Biggs and Wedge were still standing, more than a good thirty feet or so from the beast itself. As the heat continued to build a red glow began to suffuse the shell the witch was standing on, followed by a rather unpleasant smell. Stepping off of the now thoroughly cooked snail, the "witch" turned to go deeper into the cave. The smell of ozone was the only indication that something was wrong.

"LOOK OUT!" Biggs screamed as he drove his machine into a full sprint, slamming headlong into the girl's machine, throwing her from the seat and onto the ground. A blinding flash, the sound of an explosion, the falling shrapnel from her armor, and the dying screams of Biggs were all that the witch saw or heard before the world faded to black.

* * *

**********Chapter 1. εуλ 1985 **********

Midgar Bio-Informatics, or MBI for short, was a rather unusual company in the world of Gaia. Most companies try and compete with the already well established pseudo-governmental entity that is Shin-Ra productions.

But not MBI, founded by the rather eccentric Hiroto Minaka, MBI became an independent operating subsidiary of Shin-Ra. Instead of competing in industries such as military development or energy production, MBI focused on an area barely touched upon by the mega-conglomerate: medical and bio engineering. With the leadership of Minaka, they were making great strides.

Founded in εуλ 1976 by Minaka himself with financial aid from the president of Shin-Ra industries, Minaka was able to greatly enhance current medical science. He even developed methods to treat mako poisoning, which was becoming an alarmingly common occurrence among workers in the mako reactors as well as among the SOLDIER candidate dropouts. Procedures, techniques and technology, all of the medical field was under the purview of MBI. Most of the developments made were surprisingly easy to adopt as well, making MBI not only very progressive, but very, VERY profitable as well.

In the 2nd quarter of the εуλ 1983 fiscal year, MBI's gross income actually exceeded that of their parent company, Shin-Ra Electric power. Contributing heavily to this was the fact that Shin-Ra, in addition to being the parent company, was also the biggest client that MBI had. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, this was the core and cause of MBI's rapid success and growth. That night in the mines over ten years ago, Hiroto Minaka and Sahashi Takami, found ruins that contained the remains of either an ancient civilization, or an alien one.

The developments MBI had made were all a result of attempting to re-awaken and study the children they found within as well as the oblong shaped piece of green crystal with a red prism in its core similar in shape and size to a piece of materia. Said crystal was sitting in a drawer in the desk of Hiroto Minaka in his office on the 108th floor of a tower constructed by and for MBI, in the recently re-developed and commercialized Junon.

"So, Miya-chan, you've grown old enough now, maybe you can help me with something..."

Miya, the girl in question sat patiently in front of the now dubbed "professor" Minaka.

She had long lavender hair cut so that it framed her face completely, but her bangs didn't get in her eyes, known as a "hime cut" in Wutai. Both her hair and her eyes were a striking shade of lavender purple, While she personally favored more loose clothing, she was currently dressed in a tight black high-necked demi-kimono that terminated just below the line where it would be considered indecent. The arms of her dress were long sleeved and nearly skin tight until it reached the elbow, where the sleeve opened up to the traditional tail and loose fit of a regular kimono. She also had a long grey robe that she usually wore over her ensemble, more like a long coat than any kind of traditional robe, although Miya currently had the robe draped over her legs, mostly because she thought very little of Minaka or the clothing he forced her and her sisters to wear. She didn't think he deserved the show he would get otherwise.

Tilting her head to the side out of genuine curiosity, she asked "Professor? What would you need my help with?" Her eyes widened in wonderment as Minaka placed the emerald crystal on the desk.

"This was found in the ruins with you and your sisters. There was no container for it and no clues as to what it does. Our testing shows that it isn't a piece of materia, however. It is not simply inert crystal either..."

Miya's eyes hardened as she took in the information the professor were supplying her with. "You haven't allowed any of us to even so much as look at a piece of materia for ten years, why the change now?"

Shaking his head in denial and a little bit of frustration, Minaka found himself wondering if the girl in front of him was everything that Takami claimed she could be. "Miya-chan I just finished explaining. This isn't materia, it's something different, just like you aren't human, you're something different. I was hoping you would want to help me with an experiment." His eyes taking on a frightening lecherous glare, and his glasses catching more light than they had any right to, he was the very image of an evil scientist, if Miya was any kind to guess.

"I'm very sorry professor..." Miya bowed at the waist as she was sitting in her chair saying this.

"But I am afraid that I will have to decline: your experiments tend to be rather... uncomfortable to say the least..."

Sighing in feigned frustration and mild amusement from the girl in front of him, Minaka decided if he couldn't play now, he might as well get back to work. "Well, if you don't want to help with that then its fine... so tell me, how are the others doing? I get down to the labs so rarely these days, it's like I haven't seen all of you in ages."

The abrupt subject change was fairly par for the course with Minaka so it didn't surprise Miya in the least. The fact that Takami used Miya as a sounding board for all of her frustrations with said genius didn't hurt the situation either...

"They are doing as well as could be expected, Matsu is more interested in computers and electronics than I am comfortable with, Karasuba has a bit of a temper issue to work on, but Kazehana and Mutsu are getting along splendidly. Takami even lets little Minato come over to play with the others while she works, and she introduced us to little Yukari the other day too..."

This last bit was an intentional dig on Miya's part; she knew that aside from the occasional bout of frustration-relieving rage-induced sex, Takami wanted as little to do as possible with the eccentric man in front of her. The children were actually born out of wedlock, just so Takami could keep them away from the scientist. Miya loved the expression that crossed Minaka's face when she reminded him of this little fact.

"Nooooo, Takami! Why won't you let me see my babies...?" This last comment from Minaka was followed by him pulling out his phone and immediately calling said mother of his babies.

Miya knew she struck proverbial gold. His attention was off of her and her siblings for now at least, and she was free to return to the lab to watch over them. "Professor I am heading back downstairs now..."

Minaka waved her off as he was talking to Takami already… well, more like getting yelled at by her, but that was nothing new.

******** Scene break ********

Icicle Inn had never been known for its hospitable climate or the exotic food or drink one could find there. No, Icicle Inn was famous for pretty much one thing: it was the absolute LAST bastion of any semblance of civilization that far into the great glacier.

So it was surprising to say the least when a big shot Shin-Ra scientist decided to move into a little cottage on the outskirts of the village proper.

Professor Gast Faremis had made his name in the Shin-Ra company with his research and discovery of the sample known as "Jenova". The discovery and classification of Jenova as one of the ancient race know as the "Cetra" cemented his place within Shin-Ra. The discovery of Jenova lead to many many projects, most aimed at either re-creating the Cetra or in many cases discovering their holy "promised land". The two most successful of the Jenova projects were classified as "Project G" and "Project S". Both of the projects were inhumane and cruel in both their scope and intent. So, seven years after the test subject for "Project S" was brought to the labs, professor Gast Faremis handed in his letter of resignation and left the civilized world.

Intending to find solace and hopefully repentance in solitude, professor Gast moved himself and all of his research out to Icicle Inn. And as chance would have it, during his re-location the professor happened upon a woman whom Shin-Ra had been pursuing rather fervently. Her name was Ifalna and from her claims she was a direct descendant of the Cetra. Seeing an opportunity to spare at least one life from the cruel ministrations of the Shin-Ra science department, professor Gast decided to provide shelter to the woman.

The course of the next three years was the most informative, frightening and happiest of the professor's life. On February 7th εуλ 1985 the professor and Ifalna welcomed their daughter into the world: Aerith Faremis. She took after her mother, with her brown hair and emerald green eyes. She was the center of the couple's world for nearly a month.

******** Scene break ********

Around the Shin-Ra offices there was a significant amount of anger and frustration directed towards the good professor. His old colleague professor Hojo was not fond of playing second fiddle, not fond of it at all. The fact that the professor was better at the research, admired by his son "Subject S", and had made off with a LIVE Cetra specimen? This wouldn't do, not at all.

Soon after Gast retired and dropped off of the map, Hojo began tracking him, and on February 27th εуλ 1985, he found him.

The travel to Icicle Inn, while annoying, wouldn't be that much of an inconvenience. "Subject S" could continue his studies, martial, mental and magical, aboard the airship. He might even be convinced to help with the capture seeing how much he respected Gast... No, that wouldn't be a good idea. If worst came to worst the professor might have to be killed and that would ruin any chance of cooperation from Subject "S"... no this had to be done in person. A platoon of Shin-Ra soldiers and a few operatives from the new SOLDIER project should do nicely.

"Sir, we are approaching the landing zone outside of Icicle Inn..."

These new SOLDIER's were so reliable! So prompt at following orders and if everything went according to plan, Subject "S" would be the greatest of them all...

"Sir...?"

"WHAT!?"

"As I was saying sir, we are approaching Icicle Inn, the landing teams have been informed and are gearing up. We have a buggy standing by in the hangar to transport you to town, sir." Dutifully and with a hint of longsuffering understanding, the SOLDIER a 3rd class by the rank structure, identified by his red uniform and face-covering helm, informed the VIP in charge of the current situation

"Very good."

"Any deployment orders sir?"

"Yes, have the regular troops fan out into the forest. I expect Gast has seen the airship by now and has probably decided to run."

"Understood, sir."

"Just be sure to remind them; the woman is NOT to be harmed under ANY circumstance. Am I understood?"

"Perfectly, sir."

The ride after the landing was atrocious. The "buggy" was cramped, rank with the smell of nervous troopers, and the suspension was in serious need of an overhaul. Five minutes of this had put Hojo's already shaky logical mind MUCH closer to the line of madness. But who amongst us does not dance over that line occasionally?

"Ahh so this is Icicle Inn, I fail to see the appeal. Too many trees, too much open space, not enough electricity." Inspecting the village with what could only be described as a disgusted air, professor Hojo noticed the new mother Ifalna gathering wood for her cooking fire on the side of her home. Hoping to make a short trip of it he decided to call out to her. "I finally found you. Come, it's time to go. We have much work to do back in the labs, and you've wasted enough of my time as it is."

Hearing Hojo call out to her, Ifalna dropped the wood she was carrying and ran back into her home without so much as a word, slamming the metal door shut with a resounding *BANG*.

Some of the accumulated snow began falling off of her roof and some of the nearby trees as a result.

"Tell me soldier: in your opinion, WHY DO THEY ALWAYS RUN?"

"I have no idea, sir."

"…You're useless."

"... Shall I have the men intercede sir?"

"No that won't be necessary; I'll go and reason with her." Approaching the home, Hojo calmly knocked on the door. "Ifalna, quit being unreasonable and open this door. I'm tired of wastin-"

Before he can finish his rant, Hojo was interrupted by Gast opening the door and confronting him face-to-face.

"What do you want Hojo?" he growled.

Hojo's reply was perfectly even. "I simply want my test subject back"

"SHE ISNT A TEST SUBJECT!" Gast thundered.

"I beg to differ."

"It does not matter, she isn't here anymore."

"What a bothersome task," Hojo muttered. "Must I always be surrounded by the asinine?"

******** Scene break ********

While the two scientists argued, Ifalna was running for her life through the forests behind Icicle Inn, cradling her newborn child and praying that her beloved would be alright. He had insisted she escape before anyone got closer, but it was such a hard decision.

Hojo had brought soldiers with him, and while she hadn't seen that many in the village she just knew he had a lot more out there somewhere... but it didn't matter: she and Aerith couldn't stay. Nor could they stay out in the woods for very long. If the cold didn't kill them the wildlife would.

"Sir Target sighted, it appears she has a small child with her... orders sir?"

One of the troopers had spotted Ifalna and radioed, back to Hojo's SOLDIER commander for instructions.

"Pursue the woman, subdue and capture her, the child as well."

"Permission to use tranquilizers, sir?"

"Granted." The SOLDIER then turned to Hojo. "Sir, it appears our troops in the forest have apprehended the woman. She had a small child with her as well."

"A CHILD?! Splendid, simply splendid! Oh the things we will learn from this girl!" Hojo was practically giddy with the news.

Professor Gast however was about to snap. "YOU BASTARDS! I'LL KILL YOU!"

"That's enough of that Gast, we both know you aren't fond of weapons, it's why you left after all. I however, have no such compunctions." Emphasizing his statement with style Hojo drew a simple revolver from his coat and aimed it at Gast. "Please professor, I've gotten everything I wanted from this little expedition and so much more. Don't make me kill you; it would be such a waste."

Rage smoldered in Gast's eyes. "You bastard... count on this Hojo, as long as I live, you will never be able to sleep easy. I will have my family back, and I will _end_ you..."

Hojo was not impressed. "Well now, we can't have that now can we?" he said dryly. "I am a busy man, after all."

*BANG* *BANG*

The gun in Hojo's hand goes off twice, its roars echoing for miles in the cold air. The now shocked and dying professor Gast is left breathless on the floor to bleed out at the feet of his killer.

"I think we are done here." Turning and leaving the building without a second thought, Hojo finds himself satisfied with the day. "Hmm I got my test subject back, a new one to boot, and I even got to settle an old grudge. Hehe… this is a good day... he heh he hahaha HAHAHA!"

His laughter was far more chilling than any winter wind.


	4. Chapter 2 part 1

The air in the desert of Figaro was bitterly cold; this was all that Terra Branford could think. She had spent the last three weeks running south with the "treasure hunter" Locke Cole. Terra, the so called "witch" of the empire was little more than a teenage girl who had been controlled and manipulated by a corrupt empire. Circumstances after the raid in Narshe led to Terra being freed from the control she was under during the raid.

And now she was running for her life.

"Locke, I'm so cold… can we please stop for the night?"

The "treasure hunter" was a young man in his late twenties with hair that was graying early, leaving the once brown mess atop his head a streaked and salted grey and brown mix. Holding the mess out of his eyes was a blue and gold bandana. Those eyes were a vibrant and deep brown showing both the life left in the man and the determination to live it his way.

"I'm sorry Terra, we're almost there, but we can't stop just yet, it's not safe in the desert at night…" Casting his gaze to the south as if he was expecting an ambush to appear before his eyes, he shook his head clear. "We should be at the castle by morning."

Terra released a ragged breath. "Please Locke, I can't go on, I'm so cold and tired and hungry. Can we at least stop long enough to make a fire?" she pleaded.

"I'm sorry Terra, but it's too dangerous." A look of sympathy crosses the face of the self-professed "treasure hunter" as a memory comes to mind: '_… Rachel…_'

"Come on, I'll carry you while you rest for a while. Hopefully we will be at the castle when you wake up," he said as he lowered himself into a crouch.

"Thank you Locke," the former "witch" sighed in relief as she got comfortable in his arms.

Shifting to handle Terra's weight on his back, Locke found himself lost in memories as he trudged on through the cold Figaro desert.

When Terra awoke the next morning it was in an opulently furnished room. The bed was a king-sized mattress of down and feathers with satin sheets and a heavy down comforter. Velvet drapes hung from the four poster banisters surrounding the bed, sealing it in a comfortably warm darkness.

Crawling out of bed Terra found the room to be furnished just as richly as the bed was. Warm velvet tapestries and curtains hung from the ceiling and covered all of the stone walls of the room. A large elegant set of double doors opened inwards to overlook a courtyard in the castle proper.

From the courtyard Terra could hear the voice of the one man on this planet whom she could vividly remember and more than that, he was the one man on the planet who not only inspired a loathing so deep it made her ill, but inspired an equal amount of fear.

"… Kefka…no"

Standing in the courtyard in a mockery of any kind of logical taste or sense of style was what could only be described as a clown. Dressed in a garish assortment of bright pink, green, purple, red and yellow, was the man who ordered this young woman to murder fifty of his own soldiers for nothing more than his own _amusement_.

"…Oh, Edgar; I know you have our "magitech" armors and my little pet... Don't lie to me Figaro You know you only stand to lose from trying to hide her from us! Hee-hee-hee... … Give them back to me. Please?"

Conversation with Kefka was always a touch and go kind of thing: his mind was severely damaged, by what Terra had no idea, but it left him manic, bi-polar, and prone to homicidal outbursts. This was actually a fairly restrained conversation by his standards.

The fact that the person Kefka was addressing was a king in his own right certainly encouraged his restraint. But not by much.

The king in question was one Edgar Roni Figaro. At barely twenty-four years old he was very young by the standards of royalty. Despite that he bore his inherited position well.

Standing at almost six feet tall his presence was regal and commanding, and his narrow, effeminate face made women either jealous or swoon into his arms. His hair was a clean golden blond, highlighted by hours in the sun. His skin showed evidence of his kingdom as well, the pale white of his ancestors was replaced by a rich caramel brown, and his eyes were a clear dark blue. The kingship that had fallen to Edgar was inherited after his father was killed by the imperial army.

The very same army the clown in front of him served.

The aforementioned alliance between Figaro and the empire was to protect the people of Figaro from the ravages an open war with them would cause.

"I'm sorry ambassador but we haven't see hide nor hair of your squad nor your armors. And as for the girl…You see, there are more girls here than grains of sand out there. I can't keep track of 'em all! So even if she was here the likelihood of me knowing, is unfortunately rather small."

'_Although if the rumors of her are true, I might not mind seeing her alone…'_

"FINE! This isn't over yet Figaro, I'll be back. And I'll be expecting your cooperation. I truly hope nothing happens to your precious Figaro in the meantime Hee-hee-hee!"

"Always, we live to serve 'lord'Kefka. I eagerly anticipate your return. Would you like me to have the servants leave a fresh can of powder in your usual room?" King Edgar sneered subtly at the jester.

"Yes that would be fi- YOU BASTARD! Mark my words Figaro, one day you won't be useful anymore, then we get to REALLY play. "

"I anticipate the day breathlessly," the king sneered _not-_so-subtly.

With a huff of anger and unexpressed frustration, Kefka turned from the castle courtyard and returned to his small escort awaiting him outside. "Emperor Gesthal's stupid orders! Edgar, you pinhead! Why do you have to live in the middle of a stinking desert?! These recon jobs are the pits! ...AHEM! There's SAND on my boots!"

"CHANCELLOR!" The king bellowed for his attendant after the empire's envoy left hearing range. "Make all preparations for the people of Figaro, I'm done with this farce."

Drawing his hand down across his chest in a slashing manner to emphasize the statement, Edgar turned back towards the castle proper. "Also, please check on our guests and inform them I want an audience with them as soon as they feel up to it, I would very much like to meet the woman that Locke finds so intriguing."

"At once my liege."

* * *

**********Chapter 2 part 1 εуλ 1990 **********

The Department of Administrative Research, Colloquially named the "Turks," operated more akin to a black ops squad than any kind of research or development team. Member skill sets ranged from criminal investigation and espionage to commercial demolition and aircraft operation. It was not an understatement to say that it was a... _diverse_… group.

The operative known as Tseng was almost too good to be true: quiet, calm, collected and very efficient. He executed his jobs with no preamble or hesitation, and collateral from his ops was almost always zero. This is the primary reason that the young man with the tilak mark on his forehead was in the office of the director of the Department of Administrative Research awaiting his next assignment.

An older gentleman with graying hair, stern features and sharp eyes walked into the office of the director without so much as a warning knock. "Tseng, good to see you," he greeted amiably.

"Mr. Veld, it's a pleasure as always."

"Still haven't lost that silver tongue I see." Shaking his head as he took his seat behind the large mahogany desk, Veld reached into a drawer and pulled out a case file. "We've recently found that unauthorized shipments of Shin-Ra tech and weapons have been showing up in the hands of… less than desirable customers."

As per his reputation, Tseng cut to the heart of the matter immediately. "What's the job?"

"Tracking. Find the shipments, track the source. Report your findings and await further orders at that time."

"Understood sir."

The case file that Veld had entrusted to Tseng detailed several locations where the illicit goods had shown up. "Cosmo, Gongaga, Corel, and the worker town to the northwest of Nibelheim? Seems to me I'll be making quite the long trip." It was hard to tell if the young operative was amused or exasperated at that.

The investigative side of the job, while tedious and fairly easy to accomplish, was the meat of this assignment. And as he expected the assignment took a LONG time to accomplish. He had started almost as soon as he walked out of his superior's office, gathering supplies, getting in contact with local sources, calling in favors. Almost everything he could do or think to do to speed this investigation along, he did.

It still took countless hours of work to come up with anything solid, but in the end Tseng had come up with something. Gongaga, Corel, and the newly minted "Rocket Town" all had the same supplier belonging to MBI an employee operating out of the old section of Junon harbor. The only thing left was to figure out whether or not the stuff coming into Cosmo followed the same trend. It had taken him more than five months to come this far and he wasn't about to let the investigation drop at the end, Not when he was this close to nailing _everyone_ involved, not just the supplier.

After spending more than two weeks in Cosmo Canyon being regaled with tales of the tribe's history (most of the tales made Tseng cringe at the ineptitude of the leaders), his patience was wearing VERY thin. So much so that, when a truck pulled up to the village with a tarp covering an obviously loaded bed and a couple of sharply dressed military wannabe-types driving it, Tseng nearly broke down in tears of joy, not that he would ever admit to it of course. "Finally, something interesting happens."

He was watching the pair of sharply dressed military types get out of the cab and haul a pair of small girls out behind them, neither of the girls looked to be more than ten years of age. "What's this? Little girls?" Both girls were dressed in what Tseng would expect to see someone wear in a hospital: a formless white smock covering the girls from neck to knee. He could see that neither of the girls was conscious, and it looked like the men were taking great pains to keep them from being spotted.

"Human trafficking in this day and age... I thought things were going a little too smoothly. Should probably inspect the cargo before I call back to the office..." Making his way down the cliff he was sitting on (he wasn't tanning in the sun, you can't prove anything!), Tseng stealthily crept up to the truck. "Hmm... standard Shin-Ra model 35 delivery truck... no sign of registry..."

Lifting the tarp coving the cargo in the bed, Tseng discovered something that truly caught him off guard. All of the crates were marked as MBI property, not Shin-Ra's "...I think my information is out of date. Time to call the office."

Returning to his cliff-side perch (it was for the reception dammit!) Tseng punched in the international number for the Turks HQ. A receptionist picked up the phone after a few rings with an artificially cheery tone. "You've reached the Department of Administrative Research! How might I direct your call today?"

"This is Operative Tseng, operative number; tango, five five sierra romeo delta."

"Operator ID confirmed sir, how may I help you?"

"Put me through to director Veld. I have a mission update for him."

"Very well sir. I should warn you, he just got out of a conference with president Shin-Ra and the MBI director Hiroto Minaka. Unless you have good news this won't be a pleasant conversation," the receptionist warned just before putting Tseng on hold, complete with music.

Cringing as he imagined the meeting, Tseng could only hope his mission report counted as good news...

The call connected a moment later. "This is Veld go ahead..." the man sighed wearily.

"Sir, Operative Tseng reporting in. I've completed the first portion of my mission. And I have confirmed leads tying a single supplier in Junon to all but one of the sites."

"What of the fourth site?"

"I'm in Cosmo as we speak sir, unfortunately it appears that the information we had is now out of date. The shipment that arrived here was MBI property not Shin-Ra."

As he gave his report, an audible sigh is heard over the phone.

"Well that's something at least; I just got out of a meeting with director Minaka, he had some interesting things to say about our security policies out in Junon. Apparently some of his employees have been kidnapped as well. After you finish giving your report I'm going to turn you to this, mainly because you're already in the field."

"Sir, can you describe the abducted persons?"

"Yeah, it was a pair of little girls. Apparently MBI is in the habit of raising their employees'kids and treating them as employees themselves."

Tseng would either curse or praise his luck later, depending on how this all played out. "I believe I may have found them sir."

"WHAT?"

"The shipment that arrived today, in addition to having a load of illicit supplies and cargo, had a pair of little girls, neither more than ten years of age, both dressed in what appeared to be hospital gowns."

"Damn Tseng, I just got this request today and you've already filled it. Keep up the good work. A SOLDIER detachment will be en-route shortly."

"Understood."

******** Scene break ********

On the fifty-first floor of the Shin-Ra tower, in the office of the director of SOLDIER, three women un-affiliated with the company or the SOLDIER program sat conversing with the current director. They were currently passing time while awaiting the arrival of an asset the company valued more than any other. SOLDIER 1st Class Sephiroth.

The director was a company man in his mid thirties with a full head of cornsilk blond hair gelled back in a fashionable way and a pair of silver wire frame glasses resting atop his nose over a pair of blue eyes. "I'm sorry miss... Miya was it? Are you sure there is no way I can convince you that your operatives presence won't be necessary?" he asked cordially, not sure how best to address the young-looking woman.

Miya offered the director a polite smile, her eyes closed warmly. "Unfortunately Mr. Lazard, Karasuba and Yume's presence is an absolute must. While I have no doubt about the skill of your group, I do doubt your ability to identify my sisters."

"I see. Well, once Sephiroth arrives we can discuss the deployment options and other issues."

"Of course." Despite Miya's still beatific smile, the air seemed to darken a shade and the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees, a chilling sense of displeasure wafting off the slender woman.

Karasuba and Yume, the two girls Miya was sending along with the SOLDIER Sephiroth, were dressed almost identically to Miya: short black demi-kimono with a grey robe/cloak. The only difference was that Yume was also wearing a pair of reinforced fingerless training gloves, and Karasuba was wearing a pair of thigh-high black high heeled boots. Miya and Yume's boots were a more reasonable calf height raised heel instead.

The girls themselves were both young, no more than eighteen, but then again neither was Sephiroth.

Karasuba, in a surprising similarity to the aforementioned SOLDIER, had hair only a shade or two away from white and while it was long enough to brush her waist while it was unbound, she kept it in a tight high ponytail to keep it under control.

Yume had a similar length to her hair, but it was a deep chocolate brown and cut in a layered style, bound in a tail near the base of her neck. While Yume's eyes were a shining green and taking in the world with wonder, Karasuba's eyes were perpetually in a near closed squint, like she didn't want to look at the people in front of her or bother with the world at large. Her eyes if she did open them were a dull, almost lifeless metallic shade of grey.

Leaning closer to her sister Karasuba whispered to Yume in a not-so-subtle manner. "I think Miya is getting better at that."

Yume hummed in acknowledgment. "Mmhmm, I think she has been spending too much time with Takehito-sama lately."

"Yeah, that would do it."

"...Girls..." Miya's attention was no longer on the director, now both Yume and Karasuba were beneath her beatific baleful gaze. "It's not polite to whisper like that while other people are talking."

"Eep! Sorry Miya we will shut up now." Yume immediately apologized. Karasuba simply shrugged; she wasn't one to stand on ceremony or bother with manners.

When the door opened and the SOLDIER everyone was waiting for entered the room, Miya shifted her gaze to the door, still in "disciplinarian" mode. Sephiroth, not expecting the office to be a place of danger or malevolence was momentarily stunned into silence as he walked in. For her part, Miya recovered quickly, the aura of terror winking out completely when she realized she had turned it on someone who hadn't deserved it. Sephiroth shrugged it off just as quickly.

"What was that?" Sephiroth's deep voice inquired in an almost deadpan tone. He quickly began scanning the room for an assassin. There was no other way there was that much killing intent in the air unless someone was out for blood.

Miya tilted her head to one side innocently. "I'm sorry?"

"None of you felt that?" the SOLDIER asked in mild surprise, his eyes narrowed a hair short of dangerously.

Silently waving their hands in a 'stop before you die'manner, both Yume and Karasuba desperately racked their brains for something to change the subject.

"I'm sorry, I'm not quite sure what you're talking about," Miya replied, pulling the back of her hand to cover her mouth and trying to stifle a fit of giggles with limited success. With her other hand she gestured to the open chair in the office.

Sephiroth relaxed slightly and raised an eyebrow at the strange woman. "… If you say so. Moving on, you wanted to see me director?"

"Yes. I assume you have already reviewed the deployment file I sent you earlier?"

"About the Cosmo incident?" nodding his head in affirmation Sephiroth took his seat near the end of the director's desk. "I have."

Steepling his fingers in front of his face in a manner akin to a clichéd villain Lazard started the planning session. "Your thoughts on the matter?"

Wasting no time the brilliant operative began reciting his take on the tactical ramifications of the operation. "From what I've read and the descriptions our field operative sent back, I'd hazard to guess that this is an AVALANCH operation. The medical technology from MBI lines up with what we would expect them to need." He then walked over to one of the screens the director had lining the walls of his office and brought up a map of Cosmo Canyon with a few quick clicks of a remote. "Furthermore, we have reason to suspect that AVALANCE has been using the Cosmo Valley area for some time now: the caves the local populace used to use for dwellings go deep into the bedrock and would provide and amazing natural fortress."

Her eyes opening the slightest amount in interest, Karasuba decided to join the conversation. "OK so we know who these guys are and where they're holed up. How are we going to get the little ones back and what can we expect to see out of these assholes?"

Nodding his head sagely at the questions Karasuba raised, Sephiroth got an almost wistful look on his face. "I'd prefer it to be _me_ expecting something from these assholes not 'us'or 'we'but I digress. In all honesty, if the command chain isn't in Cosmo then there isn't a whole lot they can do. A few machine guns, a couple of brawler types and maybe an explosive or two. They mostly commit terrorist activities. Kidnapping is a new and unexpected gig for them."

In response to his distaste at bringing them along, Yume clasped her hands over her chest and gave him a pleading gaze, hoping Sephiroth would understand and accept their presence. "Sephiroth-sama, I do understand that you would prefer to work alone, but these are our little sisters; our love for them requires that we do all that we can to help them."

"Enough with the mushy stuff Yume, we'll have time enough for the waterworks on the way home. So big guy, how are we going about getting in?" Karasuba was now more interested in the coming conflict than she was in catering to her sister.

With an exasperated sigh, Sephiroth began to massage a developing headache between his eyes. He hadn't even been around these girls for half an hour yet! "There are a few options. The most obvious of which is the cave in the back of the village: it's big, it's obvious, and it's probably well guarded."

"I like it." Karasuba her eyes now fully open. The implications such an entrance would make had a predatory smile growing on her face.

"The other option is a cave near the top of the canyon cliffs. It's quite a bit harder to get to, but it's less likely to be defended."

"This seems to be the better option to me Kara." After hearing this option, Yume was already mentally dedicated to it. "There seems to be less chance we would have to hurt many of the soldiers this way."

"Oh, get off your high horse Yume!" Karasuba snapped, suddenly incensed and all but snarling at her sister. "They _kidnapped_ Musubi and Kaho! These pricks don't deserve your mercy!"

"Yes they do Kara! It wasn't those soldiers that kidnapped our little sisters, it was someone in Junon. These men are mostly innocent and don't deserve to die over this," Yume countered sharply.

"YUME…!" By this time both Karasuba and Yume had risen out of their respective seats and were getting closer and closer to each other almost about to come to blows over their difference in mentality.

By now, Sephiroth had a full-blown headache. "**ENOUGH**!" he shouted, his voice like thunder and silencing the entire room almost down to everyone's breathing. "There is no reason why we can't do both. In fact it actually helps us that we DO both."

"How so?" Miya, having not participated thusfar, was curious how both mentalities could work to mutual benefit on such a mission.

"The idea is actually pretty simple. Karasuba and myself go in the front door and make a BIG racket, Yume goes in the top while everyone is distracted and gets both of your girls. Then we leave."

"Not that I don't love the plan big boy, but why does it have to be me AND you making all the noise?" Still standing from her near fight with Yume, Karasuba had crossed her arms defiantly over her chest.

Arching his eyebrow in a disbelieving manner, Sephiroth gave the slender girls a once over. "Honestly? Because I'm not sure you could survive if I wasn't there. This plan does however require that Yume finds and gets both girls out on her own."

"Blunt and honest, I like that. Sounds like fun. I can't wait." Karasuba's smile was nearly maniacal.

"Agreed. The sooner we can get Musubi and Kaho out and back home the better." nodding her agreement, Yume seemed more restrained in her enthusiasm, but just as determined to see it through.

For the first time since Sephiroth took over the briefing, the director spoke. "Good, now that everyone is in agreement, let's begin our preparations. Will you need us to furnish you with any equipment, girls?"

Despite the question not being directed towards her, Miya felt it was her responsibility to answer for her girls. "That won't be necessary Mr. Lazard. We can provide everything our girls will need ourselves, but thank you for the support." Bowing in her chair as she spoke, Miya's eyes had gone from pleasantly welcoming and warm, to a hardened icy look, similar to the one Sephiroth constantly wore.

"Very well. Our airship will be ready for departure by tomorrow morning." Having confirmed the plan, Lazard started typing away on his desktop computer immediately, finalizing the requests to use the Highwind and making a flight plan both to and from Cosmo.

******** Scene break ********

In a private room up in the penthouse suite of an upscale hotel in upper Midgar, Miya, Karasuba and Yume after leaving the Shin-Ra tower were having their own pre-mission meeting.

"Karasuba, I know that director Minaka is still searching for a blade for you and in the meantime I don't want you using just any old piece of sharpened scrap iron we could find."

"So what are you suggesting Miya? I go at these 'terrorists'bare-fisted like Yume or that I use a gun?" gagging in disgust as she mentioned using a gun, Karasuba was a little frustrated. Sure the director had promised to find her a blade worthy of legends, but he had been searching for years.

On top of that every sword she put her hands on was made using modern methods, barely lasting five minutes in her hands before she ended up breaking it.

"No Karasuba, I am not going to send you after our sisters unprepared." Reaching behind her to grasp a long thin package wrapped in a black silk shroud, Miya placed the package upon her lap.

"I am going to lend you my blade, my sister: Ame-no-Ohabari."

'The Tail Feathers of Heaven.'Minaka must be more twisted than I thought giving you of all people a blade with a name like that." She may have been speaking irreverently, but Karasuba's eyes were locked on the blade before her. It was an odachi and a marvelous one-of-a-kind blade, at that. Naked in terms of ornamentation or decorations, the blade was however fabulous in its own right. The _hamon_ caused during the tempering of the blade was an absolutely perfect wave pattern beginning at the edge of the brass _habaki_ bindings and extending all the way down the five-and-a-half feet of the blade's length in a perfectly homogenous, ideal wave pattern. The blade could not have been forged by mortal hands.

"Thank you Miya, I'll make sure to bring it back safely." Karasuba almost reverently took the sword from Miya's lap with all the manners she so vehemently denied having at any other time.

Reaching her own hand out and striking Karasuba lightly on the forehead playfully, Miya shook her head and admonished her sister. "I care less for this blade than I do the safe return of my siblings Karasuba... ALL of my siblings, that includes you."

Placing her hand upon Karasuba's shoulder in a comforting manner, Miya continued, "You more than anyone know that if I didn't have responsibilities to the others still in Junon I'd already be in Cosmo. But I can't; that's why I need to send you and Yume, my two strongest little birds."

With an expression equal parts warm and professional, Yume said, "Don't worry Miya, Karasuba and I will make sure we get our sisters back safe and sound."

Miya could only smile. "See that you do Yume."

********* Scene Break********

Deep within the caves of Cosmo canyon, innocent little Musubi and Kaho were being kept in relative comfort within the confines of the AVALANCHE base. The group took great pains to see to the girls'needs. Much to their collective despair and to the emptying of the local coffers, there were many. Both of the girls seemed to have insatiable appetites: despite their early claims of not being hungry, Musubi and Kaho _each_ finished more than nine cups of rice and an equal portion of curry by themselves on their first night in the compound. The members of AVALANCHE were honestly grateful that the little girls were still in a state of shock. None of them wanted to see either of the girls on a good day.

Despite having the freedom to explore the compound after dinner, they kept mostly to themselves. The shock of being unwillingly separated from the rest of their sisters and the familiar surroundings of MBI made the girls cry themselves to sleep for the past 2 nights. The AVALANCHE guards were under strict orders from their leaders, in particular the current head of the organization Elfé and her assistant and tactical advisor Fuhito, to "do everything within reason to provide and care for the special little guests from Junon." So on the third night of the girls still crying themselves to sleep, Kanos, one of the guards hand-picked for the job by advisor Fuhito himself, decided to comfort and play with the girls a bit to try and lift their spirits. Peeking through the door he could see little Musubi in her sister Kahos arms crying as was becoming more and more common. "Knock knock…"

Looking up Kaho saw the silhouette of Kanos frame outlined by the hallway lights. "Mr. Kanos do you need something from us?" Kaho's childlike voice hid just how mature she really was despite being no more than ten years old.

"Not particularly, I just came to see if there was anything I could do to cheer either of you up at all…" the guard shuffled his feet awkwardly. He needed something to work with: a game, a story, something.

Musubi after hearing Kanos in the doorway lifts her head off of her sister's comforting side and sniffs loudly "…I want to go home… I miss Miya-nee and Kaze-nee, and even Mutsu-oniichan." After listing the names of her older siblings Musubi nearly burst into tears once more.

Scratching his head at the dilemma he has put himself in Kanos tried to appeal to the girl's sense of curiosity. "… I … uh, I can't let you go home yet; there are a lot of people who have been waiting a _really_ long time to meet you girls."

Musubi and Kaho both seemed taken aback by that. And in a surprising show of timing, both girls replied with a simple "Really?"

"Yeah lots of people, they should be here any day now. But in the meantime I've got a question for you girls."

Kaho was still rightly suspicious of the rebel soldier in front of her, and remained silent. Musubi however is quickly overcome by her curiosity. "A question? What is it?"

"Well its not so much what you can answer, its more what you've done… Have either of you seen 'Materia'before?"

Musubi shook her head. "The professor never let us play with any before. He said it was dangerous and not for little kids."

"Well normally I'd agree with your professor, but we both know you aren't little kids now don't we?" a Cheshire cat grin spreading across his face as he crouched down to the girls level. "Here, look at this. My boss gave me a bunch of different kinds so I could keep you safe."

"Mr. Kanos, you use Materia. Does that mean you're weak? Miya-nee never needs any and she can scare just about anyone." Kaho, in one of those rare moments only kids are truly capable of, managed to not only praise her sister but insult the man guarding them at the same time without even trying.

"Err… no my boss actually gave me this one because I'm really strong actually." Snapping somewhat defensively as he held up a rather large baseball-sized green Materia, Kanos continued. "Do you girls know anything about Materia?"

Musubi shook her head negative again and focused at the emerald orb with wide enraptured eyes.

"Only what Miya-nee told me. She said '_Kaho, Materia is for people who cant defend themselves and need to rely on stealing something that doesn't belong to them to fight. You won't ever need it." _As she said this, Kaho adopted a pose similar to what she saw her elder sister do: back straight, one hand on the side of her face cradling her cheek, the other wrapped around her chest and her forearm supporting her raised arm.

"Jeez kid, I'm getting the impression you don't like me very much," Kanos sulked slightly.

"That, Mr. Kanos, is because I don't." Kaho's prim reply carried that perfect, childish certainty.

Cringing before the awesome might that is a spiteful pre-pubescent girl, Kanos rocked back on his heels. Unfortunately, he rocked back too far and lost his balance.

"WHOA!" As he fell his arms reflexively dropped what he was holding and reached to brace his fall. Said object being the unusually large Materia he had pulled out before.

"I'll get it Mr. Kanos!" Musubi cried and before anyone could stop her, she was up and moving, her curiosity about the green crystalline orb overriding her depression and even her sense of caution. As she grabbed the orb, something unexpected happened.

Normally the only time Materia shows any kind of activity or changes in any way is when a person channels their will or their intent through it to access the magic it contains. When this happens the Materia will glow slightly in varying colors depending on its variety and its growth. The more developed and stronger the Materia orb is, the brighter the glow will be. The Materia Musubi had picked up was a fully developed Materia, one that had already split part of itself into a new undeveloped copy sometime earlier. And it was also one that only gave access to one cataclysmically powerful spell.

As soon as Musubi put both of her hands on the orb to pick it up, her body locked ramrod straight as if caught in an electrical current, and the Materia began to radiate the telltale light as if it were being activated. However, instead of a gentle steady light, Musubi was caught within a torrent of incandescent energy that seemed to pulse through her entire body from the orb, each stronger than the last.

"MUSUBI!" Kaho screamed in fear for her sister. She tried to reach out and knock the Materia out of her hands, but the light the Materia was radiating pushed her away like a physical thing. The pulses were beginning to damage the walls of the room the girls shared through sheer force.

As violent as the display looked, it was almost soundless, the waves of light only just carrying a low drone.

"Oh no no no NO! This is SO VERY NOT GOOD!" Kanos was outright panicking: he couldn't even stand through the strength of the pulses anymore. He didn't know what was happening or how to help stop it, or even if he was going to survive long enough to try.

The pulses of light reached a shining crescendo like a newborn star and then… stopped as suddenly as they began. The light from the Materia orb dwindled to nothing, leaving it as clear as a crystal ball. Finally free from the shocking influence of the orb, Musubi's eyes rolled back into her skull and she dropped to the ground like a puppet that had all of its strings cut at once.

"…Musubi, no… MUSUBI! MUSUBI! WAKE UP PLEASE MUSUBI!" Seeing her sister fall seemingly lifeless to the floor, Kaho began to panic as well, tears streaming from her eyes as she shook her sister helplessly.

Her cries brought more guards into the room to investigate, but what they saw stopped them. The scene in the room was complete chaos: Kanos knocked out in a corner; little Kaho crying over the collapsed form of her sister and most of the room's furnishings were either shredded or broken. "What in Gaia's name happened here?" one guard whispered in awe. The rest could only stare at the scene before them.

"Please, we need help, my sister Musubi… she isn't breathing. Please help her," Kaho whimpered through choked sobs.

Coming back to his senses, the soldier radioed a medical emergency. Within moments a pair of stretchers arrived for the unconscious Kanos and the comatose Musubi.

Leaving little Kaho alone in her room, sobbing over the fate of her beloved sister.


	5. Chapter 2 part 2

********** CHAPTER 2 part 2 εуλ 1990**********

With Junon essentially in the hands of MBI, Shin-Ra needed to create another harbor and airstrip. A quick survey found the old Sector 1 fit for the reconstruction and remodeling, and plans went through the department of urban development. Five years after Junon changed hands, Midgar had its own major shipping harbor and an active international airstrip.

Most of the executives and managerial staff in the Shin-Ra HQ loved the idea: having a terminal in Midgar cut down on transportation costs and it was generally more convenient. The citizens of Sector 1 were annoyed at first, but as is the president's prerogative, he threw money at them until they let up... buying them new homes and paying for the citizens to be relocated throughout the city itself. The slums however were simply displaced

The only downside was that while many within the city viewed Midgar as the center of the world, geographically it was significantly farther away from many locations than Junon had been. For instance, the trip from Junon to Cosmo canyon by air would take approximately sixteen hours, the same flight from Midgar, would take nearly twenty-four.

This was a fact that had both Karasuba and Yume in a very bad mood.

Both of the girls handled the stress in their own ways: Yume tended to read or meditate, generally by herself, and only came out of her rather opulent cabin for food.

Karasuba on the other hand, spent almost all of her time in the cargo hold practicing with the Ame-no-Ohabari.

Her swings were vicious, full of all the emotion she had been unable to express any other way. Her style was a derivative of the classic single-edged saber style with many of the original style's moves either changed or omitted because of the length of the blade she was using. Ame-no-Ohabari was an odachi, and with a blade length of a little over five and a half feet the sword, from tip to hilt, stood a full head taller than she did. With her coming in just under 5'" and the sword in its scabbard measuring a full six feet nine inches, it was clear she wasn't used to wielding the blade. Skilled as she was, it was awkward.

"Don't know… 'huff'… how Miya… 'huff'… does it. She's even shorter than I am" Panting from the exertion and so focused on her practice, Karasuba didn't notice she had an observer, someone who had a tendency to work off stress in a similar manner: with a blade.

"Stop fighting the weight of the blade. Go with it, if the momentum of the blade pulls you into a spin, close into the center of the blade and encourage it." Coming down the stairs with Masamune in hand, Sephiroth demonstrated what he meant.

Unsheathing his exceptionally long blade Sephiroth performed a quick slash left to right, but instead of stopping the slash at the end of his reach he collapsed his left arm and brought it close to his chest. As he did he stepped closer to the blade of his sword, spinning as he did so. When he completed the spin, he gave a second slash, significantly faster than the first, finishing the swing by bringing his sword low to the ground to dissipate the momentum.

"I don't use it; it's too much wasted movement for my style. But from what I've seen, you aren't concerned about conserving your movement." Sephiroth commented clinically without mocking or complimenting her style.

"It's this damn sword. I never learned how to use an odachi like Miya did. I'm more partial to the Chokutō style personally." Flicking the blade of the sword in exasperation and a light blush spreading across her cheeks Karasuba decided to get back to her practice. "I may not be as good with this as I am with a straight blade, but I can still hold my own.

Sephiroth couldn't help but chuckle lightly at her defensiveness. "See that you get some rest, we will be arriving in the Cosmo valley in about 10 hours." Re-sheathing the Masamune smoothly as he climbed the stairs, the SOLDIER left to go and follow his own advice.

"Stupid pretty boy know-it-all… thinks he knows everything does he… get some rest Karasuba… you're swinging your sword wrong Karasuba… mumble mumble mumble." Karasuba ended up spending the next three hours practicing with the Ohabari, trying to incorporate the move Sephiroth had shown her, muttering curses and incoherencies all the while.

******** Scene Break ********

The drop into Cosmo Canyon was accomplished in two parts.

The first part of the drop was Yume: she was to be let off the Highwind well north of Cosmo, out of sight or sound of the city. She would meet up with Tseng and infiltrate the caves from another entrance. The other part was to be Sephiroth and Karasuba's entrance where the Highwind would simply drop them directly into the center of the city.

The drop off with Yume went smoothly and without incident. Tseng was at the agreed upon location with a buggy for transport.

Karasuba and Sephiroth were next, standing on the lower open air decks together.

Sephiroth, ever the model SOLDIER, was a beacon of calm amidst the storm. His expression and posture radiated nothing more than calm collected precision and poised confidence.

Karasuba WAS the storm, the range of emotions crossing her face could be mistaken for any number of things. Fear, excitement, trepidation, joy, remorse, her emotions were running the full range, and with the way she was gripping the railings it was hard to tell if her shaking was hesitation or anticipation.

But when the time came, with the airship pulling low over the clearing in the center of Cosmo Canyon and the pilot called the mark for them to jump, she did, no hesitation or fear visible on her face. The pair each landed from the fifty foot drop with an ease that bespoke of long practice and overwhelming power. Sephiroth dropping gently to one knee to absorb the fall, and karasuba landing lightly, as if she weighed no more than her namesake; a ravens feather.

For a single moment time seemed to stand still, the gentle breeze faltered, the birds quieted, and even the coyotes fell silent.

The moment was abruptly shattered, when a soldier in green and red fatigues appeared on a balcony over the village.

"IT'S SHIN-RA! WERE UNDER ATTACK!"

The trooper running back inside could be heard activating an alarm. The muted sound of the klaxon sirens could be heard and felt through the stone of the village.

"Think we've made enough noise?" a hungry predatory smile upon her face, karasuba drew the Ame-no-Ohabari from it's sheathe.

Similarly unsheathing the Masamune; Sephiroth gave karasuba a dry appraisal of the situation. "Well even if we didn't, that siren will do it for us. Now all we have to do is hold out till Yume and Tseng get the girls out."

"But that's the fun part." Dropping the sheath behind her, Karasuba adjusted her grip on the blade she held, and waited.

******** Scene Break ********

A few minutes earlier just before Sephiroth and Karasuba began having their fun, Yume and Tseng had moved back to the top of the canyon.

"Over here miss Yume, the entrance is next to this statue." On the top of the cliff looking away from the village was a statue of a rather large feline, with multiple spears piercing his hide, his head locked into a moonward howl.

The entrance Tseng referred to was a small gap in the rock of the plateau leading to a narrow decent into the rock itself. "Well Tseng-san, down we go."

Leaving her robe behind in the buggy so as not to hinder herself, Yume began her descent into the AVALANCH base.

The climb was easy, and with no interruptions the pair made quick progress down through the caves and into the AVALANCH complex beneath. Once they got down into the actual building, the sound of footsteps aside from their own began to echo through the halls.

******** Scene Break********

The members of AVALANCH now aware of the threat began to pour out of the caves and crevices of the village like a swarm of angry bees. Sephiroth's tactical assessment from earlier was fairly accurate. Most of the guards were holding a firearm of some kind. A few had bayonets, and even fewer still could be seen either with grenades across their chests or in their hands.

However, the tactical assessment failed to predict how all of the "rabble" that composed AVALANCH would be able to work together.

Like a well oiled machine, the grenadiers in perfect synchronicity with each other all primed and tossed the grenades they held into the center of the village. A rain of explosive death plummeted towards the pair.

As the first of the grenades reached her, Karasuba turned the odachi so the edge was back away from her target, and swung towards the grenade striking the explosive perfectly in its center. The grenade ricocheted off of her blade straight away from the duo in the clearing, and into two other grenades. Effectively clearing a path through the cloud of death. Before the first grenade hit the ground, Karasuba was upon the balcony with the whistleblower, her sword impaled through his torso.

Sephiroth merely touched a piece of materia upon his wrist, and a pillar of light sprang forth from the ground around him. The grenades bouncing harmlessly off of it. The explosion from the grenades was impressive. The overpressure from the blast knocked many of the un-prepared soldiers off of their feet. Karasuba using the corpse of a soldier as her shield, and Sephiroth standing impassively in the center of the blast, were both un-affected. The soldiers were only beginning to witness how completely out-classed they were.

******** Scene Break ********

The wail of a klaxon siren alerted the pair underground that the distraction tactis of their companions was working. The richocet of bullets off of the walls near Tsengs head however, spoke volumes to the opposite.

"SHIT!" Cursing loudly as a round from one of the guards rifles passed far to close to Tseng's head for comfort.

"Now now Tseng-san, that kind of language is uncalled for." Yume perfectly calm, despite the hail of gunfire around herself and her companion, wagged her finger in an admonishing manner.

"You're kidding right?" Tseng dead-panned to the ever exuberant young woman beside him. "If six men with automatic weapons at the end of a hallway don't warrant the use of profanity. Then what pray tell does?"

"These men aren't much of a threat Tseng-san Ill deal with them if you don't mind terribly."

With her ever present smile gracing her face, Yume without a care in the world moved to step directly into the oncoming gunfire.

"Dammit. This girl is craz-" Tseng's latest ire inspired curse was cut short, as the woman he was about to jump out and rescue from her own stupidity, seemed to teleport. It was only a short distance, maybe three or four feet. But the movement seemed to be instantaneous. And no… Tsneg's eyes weren't deceiving him, this fact was confirmed as the woman he believed to be hopelessly naive and incompetent dodged not one, not two, not even three rifles. But SIX fully automatic weapons, in the confined space of a hallway, without taking so much as a scratch.

As she closed to melee range, she grabbed the muzzle of the closest rifle pulled it free of the rifleman and knocked him un conscious with one fluid movement, the remaining five barely had time to register the fact that they were down a man before they joined him in blissful sleep.

Tseng was in a word; stupefied. Yume should have by all rights barely been more than a red stain at the back of the hallway by now, not standing triumphant over the forms of SIX troopers.

And to make it worse, she didn't look the least bit winded. Barely able to breath the words beyond his confusion, the turk managed to get out. "What in the gods name are you?"

Turning her head towards her companion, and striking a small pose to emphasize her statement, Yume declared proudly. "Sekire number 08 Yume."

********Scene Break ********

Running to duck behind another out-cropping of rock, Karasuba let out an angry curse "Damn this mage! Once I get my hands on him I will carve him into ribbons!" The fight had been going well so far. The AVALANCH troops continued to flow like water out of the base, and as they did they continued to break upon blade and spell like so many waves upon the rocks.

That was at least until one of the "leaders" Sephiroth had mentioned showed up.

Unlike the rest of the troops his uniform was a grey/ black/ and white camo pattern, and instead of a helmet, he had bandages wrapped around his head, as if he had recently suffered a head injury. Also unlike his fellows, the newest addition to the field of slaughter, carried no weapons visible on him. Aside from a pair of bracers, lined with multi-colored orbs.

All in all he was a rather tempting target. Sephiroth saw him as well, and a single word barely escaped his closely pressed teeth. "…Mage…"

********Scene Break ********

The resistance Yume and Tseng faced as they proceeded deeper into the facility continued unabated. Around every corner was another squad with rifles at the ready, and every squad was silenced in seconds. By Yume with her continuously performing that "teleportation" trick with so little effort that it made Tseng envious.

The most shocking thing of all, in Tseng's mind at least; was the fact that Yume was going out of her way to leave every soldier they passed, alive even going so far as to purposely disrupt Tseng's aim when he actually had a shot. In his mind, this "sekirei" as she called herself was as dire a threat on the battlefield as Sephiroth himself. And if her number was 08…

"Miss Yume…"

Pausing before she rounded the corner Yume cocked her head innocently to the side "yes Tseng-san?"

"You said you were Sekirei 08 correct?" Tseng with more than a little trepidation asked the young titan in front of him.

"Yes that's correct." Confirming his question with a bright smile Yume nodded emphatically.

"So if you are a sekirei, and we are coming to rescue your sisters, I assume they are sekirei as well?"

Her smile still present Yume confirmed the operative's instinct without hesitation. "That's right, Kaho and Musubi, numbers 87 and 88."

Upon hearing her simple but devastating answer, Tseng had gone a little pale. "How many sekirei are there?

Putting her forefinger to her chin in thought Yume thought back to her time in the MBI labs. "Well last time I talked with Takami-san, she said there were 100 left to be woken up, and if I'm number 08 that means there are 108 of us."

Now looking truly ashen faced Tseng squeaked out. "Are all of them as strong as you?"

Laughing lightly Yume shook her head in the negative. "Oh no. not at all…"

Tseng releasing a breath he didn't know he had been holding sighed gently.

"… actually many of them are far stronger than me."

With this Tseng nearly fainted and instead chose to preserve his dignity by promptly sitting down to contemplate the ramifications of this. 108 people un-affiliated with Shin-Ra or SOLDIER, all able to fight on par with the best elite SOLDIER's Shin-Ra could produce. The thought was staggering.

********Scene Break********

(Heavenly bodies born of chaos descend upon my foe! purge the taint upon the river of life, purify the broken earth! COME! COMET!) - translation of the incantation in English. incant in Italian.

While Yume and Tseng were busy, Karasuba was proving just how staggering the Turk's thought really was. Annoyed at first by the appearance of the mage and the sudden shift in the tactics required to fight him, Karasuba had adapted admirably. Instead of the slow and methodical approach Sephiroth had been using, Karasuba had to adopt a much faster hit-and-run tactic. Finding clusters of soldiers, she would pass the first and allow the mage to take him out for her with his wide-area explosions or some kind of weird pyramid of electricity. while she killed the rest of the group, ignoring the mage altogether.

Sephiroth however was focused solely on the mage. His shield was still holding strong against the hail of bullets and occasional grenade. Sephiroth paid the soldiers no mind, trusting in Karasuba to be rid of them.

Sephiroth began to chant the incantation for one of the spells he had access to: Comet. A deadly barrage of stone that ignored height, ignored cover, and decimated the field. _**"**__**Corpi celesti nati del caos scende sul mio nemico! Eliminare la macchia sul fiume della vita, purificare la terra rotto! VIENI! COMET!**__**"**_the silver-haired SOLDIER drove the point of his blade deep into the ground, shattering massive chunks of rock and soil into the sky. As they rose the chunks took on a more spherical apperance, becoming more like the "comets" they were supposed to be.

Rising to a nearly astrinomical height, the chunks of rock and earth returned to the ground they belonged to, violently.

"KARASUBA, COVER NOW!" Calling and pointing skyward in warning to his partner, Sephiroth dropped his sheild momentarily to allow her to enter its shelter with him.

Panting slightly from the exertion, Sephiroth raised the spellsheild behind her.

The rain of death started in earnest not long after. Whether anyone in range survived the assault wasn't truly important for their mission, but it kept the enemy pinned down at least.

Holding her blade at rest beneath her left side, Karasuba had her arms crossed over her chest. And luminous blush flushing across her face from both the exertion and something else."Soo... think we made enough noise now?"

"Positive." Still winded from the magical exertion, Sephiroth barely noticed the condition of his partner. Once her regained his breath he straightened to his full height. "Now all we need is the word from Tseng to extract."

As if speaking propheticly the radio at his waist crackled to life. "Command, this is Tseng. Targets acquired both in stable condition. Operative Yume is down. I repeat: Operative Yume is down."

********Scene Break ********

After their conversation, resistance from AVALANCHE almost disappeared, little more than doctors and clerks cowering away from the powerful duo who so casually strode through the secured hallways.

"Think the girls are here?" Yume looked around regarding the facility around her with curiosity plain on her face.

"The medical suite seems as likely a place as any, especially if they were trying to run any experiments on the girls." Grimacing as he pictured the kinds of experiments Hojo would subject the little girls to, he silently promised he would prevent that at most any cost. "The staff should be able to tell us more."

Cornering one of the staff in a long white lab coat, Tseng began the "gentle" and "easygoing" task of "convincing" the staff member to divulge what he knew. Yume stood in another room while Tseng and the staff member had their "discussion," ignoring the cries for mercy and pleas for his life by thinking of how to spoil her two younger sisters once she got them home.

Emerging from the room and wiping his hands with a peice of cloth, Tseng stated with very little emotion, "Musubi is in the Intensive Care wing and Kaho is still in their shared room, just around the corner."

"Thank you Tseng, I'm glad that the you decided to talk with him. I'm not sure I would have been able to just talk," Yume replied with barely more emotion that the Turk did.

"It's part of the job."

Nodding her head in acknowledgment, Yume began the walk to reach Kaho.

"What room did you say she was in?" Looking over the number plates on each door Yume glanced back to Tseng.

"Four-zero-three," Tseng recited, pointing to a door down the hallway.

Yume dashed ahead of him. Opening the door Tseng had singled out, Yume saw a room very similar to a hotel room furnished with two double beds, tables near each bed, and a set of chairs for the occupants of the room. Looking closer, she saw that the table beside the far bed was only standing on three legs, leaning on the bed it was next to more than standing on its own.

As she stepped through the door, the familiar *whoosh* of a blunt object being swung caught her attnetion. Jumping to the side and easily avoiding the makeshift club, Yume saw her little sister swinging the missing table leg like a baseball bat with all of her considerable juvenile might with her eyes squeezed shut. The inertia of her missed swing caused her to step forward and stumble blindly. Falling forward into the gently welcoming embrace of her sister Yume, Kaho looked dumbfounded.

"I come all this way and even drag Kara-nee along with me, and you try and bonk me on the head with a table leg as thanks? That hurts Kaho," Yume teased in a light voice.

Her eyes going wide at the sound of her sister's voice, Kaho's nerveless fingers let the makeshift bat hit the floor. "Yume-nee..." she whispered, almost not daring to believe it before burying her face in the young woman's dress. The little girl was finally able to relax and broke down, sobbing openly for the first time since Musubi had been hurt. "Yume-nee... you're really here...!" she sniffled before stiffening in the older woman's embrace. Looking up at her sister in horror, Kaho realized that Musubi was still gone. "Yume-nee, we have to go help Musubi! She picked up a Materia and got hurt..."

Placing her hand on little Kaho's head Yume tried to quiet her sister gently. "Shh… its alright Kaho, were going to get Musubi-chan right now and then we're going home."

With little Kaho now firmly attached to her sister's side, Tseng led the way towards the infirmary. The short walk proved fortuitously un-eventful. Once they reached the infirmary itself, little Musubi was easy to find. The room itself was average for a good hospital in almost every way, aside from the fact that all of the beds in the room save one had been moved and stacked in a pile at the back wall.

That one bed was set in the center of the room with a small girl resting gently underneath a bedsheet, on oxygen mask on her face and sensors connecting to her body. The electrocardiogram next to her showed that her heart was beating strongly but irregularly. Her breathing was shallow and fast. The unhealthy flush of her skin only served as the last confirmation that Musubi was in bad shape.

Looking at the girl with a sad smile on her face Yume turned to her companion. "Tseng-san, would you please unhook Musubi from those machines and pass her to me so we can all leave this place?"

"Gladly, Miss Yume." Working quickly and efficiently as was his nature, Tseng disconnected the EKG sensors and the oxygen mask, gently lifting the girl. He grunted in a pleasant surprise, "She is much lighter than she looks." Passing the girl to her sister, the four made their way back to the cliffside entrance they had used to enter in the first place.

Although less than twenty minutes had passed since the time the group had entered, the sky now had an angry red hue to it, and the sound of gunfire and the screams of the dying choked the air. Looking down to the shivering forms of her sisters, one held to her chest protectively and the other clinging to her side as if her life depended on it, Yume decided to try and spare her sisters any more of the horrors in the region. "Tseng-san."

"Yes, Miss Yume?" Tseng called back while making space for the girls in the buggy.

Glancing once more to her sister and cringing at the thought of what she was about to suggest, Yume persisted. "Do you happen to have any sedatives I could give to my sister?"

Scrunching his face at the thought of giving a sedative to a girl so young, realization dawned on the young man with the sound of another dying scream from down in the city below.

"Just a moment…" Pulling out his backpack from its compartment Tseng found a small pouch containing a few doses of 'dream powder,'a combat drug meant to put multiple enemies into a deep sleep, and five syringes of 'military tranquilizer'a post-combat antidote to counter many combat stimulants currently in use. Either one in a full dose would be dangerous to use on the little girl, but the dream powder could be used more easily in a smaller dosage. Handing the pouch to Yume he explained, "Mix a spoonful of this into a glass of water and have the little one drink it." Passing her a spoon and cup from his mess kit, Tseng immediately went back to work reorganizing the buggy.

Mixing the ingredients as directed, Yume with a sad but determined look on her face asked one last question. "Once she drinks this how long will it last, Tseng-san?"

Not even bothering to look up from his task, Tseng replied uneasily, his instincts warning him of the direction the conversation was taking. "On a normal person the dosage would put them out for nearly fifteen hours, but with you Sekirei I'm honestly not sure."

"Then may I ask you a favor Tseng-san?" Yume continued while helping Kaho finish the cup of water, get into the now cleared seat and buckle in. Already the little girl was getting drowsy.

Climbing into the driver's seat, Tseng didn't respond as he turned the ignition key and revved the engine.

"Please don't let Kaho know what I'm about to do…" Kneeling next to her now sleeping little sister, Yume gently kissed her forehead before going back to Musubi.

"Miss Yume? What are you doing?" Once he saw Yume on the ground with Musubi, Tseng's instincts all screamed at him that something was terribly wrong. He all but leaped out of the drivers seat.

"Musubi won't survive the trip home I'm afraid. Whatever AVALANCHE did to her, it damaged her mind and broke something inside of her. If I don't do something now, she will die even before the Highwind can get here." Tears falling freely and with sorrow weighing on her like an anvil, Yume never took her eyes off of her sister. "Look, you can see it now: she's almost hyperventilating just lying here. It's been slowly getting worse since we found her."

"What are you planning to do?" Tseng asked cautiously.

"I will give her my life." Saying this as if it were the simplest thing in the world, a glow began to surround both Yume and Musubi. "One last thing, Tseng. Once she wakes up, please give her the same thing we gave to Kaho and spare her the pain."

As shocking as the sudden display was, Tseng kept his voice and posture cool. "Of course Miss Yume." Bowing slightly at the waist in respect to the woman's final wishes, Tseng stood back and watched as the glow surrounding the two began to intensify. Slowly bringing her right hand away from her chest, Yume held what looked like a piece of red Materia.

"Our core. The essence of our life. Without it, we die. Musubi, whatever they did to you broke yours. Now as your sister, let me help you one last time and fix what they have done to you."

Her words both reverent and sad, Yume placed her right hand with the now identified "core" upon Musubi's chest. "Become strong for me little sister. Live your life, find love, teach others how to love and spread joy as much as you can. Be a light in this dark world for all of our sisters to see…" her voice cracking at the end Yume managed to get one last sentence out before her core was absorbed. "… I love you Musubi, remember I will always, always be with you now."

As the core was absorbed into Musubi's chest her labored breathing slowed and the color of her cheeks faded to a more healthy shade.

Yume had gone pale, her eyes rolled into the back of her head. Without any warning and without resistance, she fell onto her side. She lay still there, lifeless on the hard canyon rocks.

Picking up his radio to signal the retreat for Karasuba and Sephiroth, Tseng sent a simple message to his commander "Command, this is Tseng. Targets acquired, both are in good condition. Operative Yume is down. I repeat. Operative Yume is down."


	6. Chapter 3

******** CH3 ********

Castle Figaro had a sense of opulence and pageantry about it. The rich colors, the vibrant smells of exotic foods being cooked hung in the air and the colorful outfits of the staff swirled around her as they busied themselves with work. But for all of its pomp and opulence, the castle also had a very mechanical and military feel to it. Behind almost all of the curtains was a large fan with a forced air vent. Large pipes could be seen running through the overheads despite the furnishings suspended from the ceiling. The uniforms of the guards were drab and practical, mostly colored in browns and light beige reminiscent of the desert around the castle itself.

The impression it all left upon Terra as she was escorted to the tailors was that the kingdom thrived on its contradictions. Either that or the king was a self-obsessed egotistical eccentric.

She prayed for her sake and for that of her companion, that it was the former.

Whatever the outcome, she was about to find out first hand. The king had summoned her to an audience in the throne room this afternoon. She wasn't surprised by this, she had been listening in on the king's meeting with Kefka after all, but that didn't change the fact that she was meeting a king, and a rather dashing one at that.

After the chancellor had informed her of the meeting, he had given her leave to find a more suitable outfit for the meeting. The crimson tunic and white leggings she had worn till now were… fragrant… to put it politely. After days of running and nights of crawling through mines and caves, the exertion showed. It unfortunately left her garments rather unfit for such a meeting. The castle seamstress was _delighted_ to have yet _another_ girl to garb at the king's behest, but she did her job without complaint.

Apparently, aside from being a hopeless flirt and a bit of a womanizer, the king was remarkably generous. The staff of his castle, aside from his soldiery, were mostly female and it seemed without exception the king had found and rescued all of the girls from bad situations. Prostitution, drugs, abuse, you name it and one of the girls had been rescued from it. Locke, Terra's 'treasure hunter'friend was apparently responsible for locating many of the girls for the king. While she was mulling her thoughts about the affairs around her, the seamstress had found two outfits that would fit Terra's frame with only minimal alterations.

One was a sarong-style dress that had been heavily altered in the past, leaving it as a rather revealing two piece affair that had the original sarong style for the skirt, except that the split was directly over the thigh of her right leg, exposing it completely every time she took a step. The top was a single piece of cloth wrapped around the neck and across the chest, bound by simply tucking the excess fabric into itself. While the outfit was a stunning sight to behold and it was in her favorite shade of crimson only made more beautiful by the silken fabric, it was FAR more revealing than Terra was comfortable with.

The other dress was of Doman Design. It was a cheongsam style dress with the left shoulder exposed and a long sleeve covering the right arm. A tight collar around the neck held the dress firm to her frame. Very form-fitting and flattering, it hung loose in a pair of tails front and back that hung from the split at her waist to just above the floor. While it was more exotic than she would like, a simple pair of leggings would make it far, far more conservative than the other. Plus it was also in her favorite shade of red with gold trimming and filigree woven into the dress. Add in the fact that the king was GIVING her both of the expensive pieces of clothing for free, and it was no surprise her opinion of the king was starting to swing more favorably.

After getting her cleaned, dressed, and styled properly, the seamstress whose name Terra had found out was Evaline Florence finally declared her fit for her audience. "Well darling, if the king doesn't try and get you in bed within the first five minutes of meeting you, then I will have to declare him an imposter." Chuckling lightly at the kings expense, Terra seemed to only grow more nervous. One of the many servants in the room spoke up to try and quell her fears.

"Oh don't pay old Eva any mind! She just likes to tease; Edgar is a saint." The maid, an assistant to Evaline, said while still working on repairing a fallen tapestry.

"OH! Hush you! Back to work!" Evaline, looking flushed with embarrassment, scolded her assistant playfully. As she did some of the other girls felt the urge to chime in.

"A saint he may be darlin', but he ain't no celibate monk. Grabbed my ass every time I walked by for a month straight…" an ear to ear smile on her face at the memory of it. Another of the maids, a girl in her late twenties, spoke up from where she was dusting one of the windows.

"Oh please! You loved every minute of it!"

Another girl working side by side with her, had a mildly scandalized look on her face. "True, getting pawed up by a king is MUCH more pleasant than getting molested in a seaside tavern every night." A dreamy look on her face as she paused in her work, the maid who spoke dropped completely into fantasy now…

"And besides, if it wasn't for the fact that Eddy knew you'd go WAY farther than even he wanted to, he would have given you more attention. That's just the way he is."

"Like I said girl, he's a saint." From there the conversation devolved into more bawdy stories about the maids taunting and tempting the king beyond anything any normal man could endure.

Terra tuned most of it out. The flush on her face was more than enough reward for the seamstress and her assistants though.

As the conversation continued on, the door to the chamber creaked open announcing the arrival of another person in the room. Turning to see the new arrival, Terra was surprised to see Locke. Dressed in white linen pants and tunic with his dark blue leather vest, and ever present scarf adorning his head, trimmed and shaven. The first thought to cross her mind was surprising for her. _'He cleans up VERY nicely…'_

Getting his first good long look at Terra still sitting in Eva's styling chair, his mouth hung open for a moment, the words he planned dying before he could voice them. Shaking his head to break the stupor Locke glared angrily at the seamstress. "Are you TRYING to give Edgar a heart attack? You know how he gets, and yet you and your maids aren't helping."

Laughing haughtily like some kind of vengeful spirit, Eva shrugged and replied, "I can't punish the boy normally now that I'm not his governess anymore. Gotta get creative." A face splitting smile was Locke's reward from the seamstress for delving into castle politics.

"… So you're telling me that these outfits… and the maids behavior… YOU'RE encouraging it? All just to 'punish'your wayward charge turned liege lord?"

Eva Shrugging lightly. "Of course. He can look but he can't touch..."

"Unless we WANT him to of course..." one of the girls chimed in from across the room setting the rest of the girls into giggle fits. Eva sighed in a long suffering manner and continued on despite the interruption. "But it's not like I want the boy to become some kind of lust-filled beast. Eventually I'd love to raise a few brats for him. Raising him and his brother Sabin was the best thing to happen in my lifetime…"

Locke smirked as an idea came to him. "Well now that I've revealed your evil plot, I'm off to inform the king, and I'll be taking the proof with me." Grabbing Terra lightly by the arm to guide her to the audience chambers, Locke made his way to leave the room. Standing in his way was the tawdry maid who had been dusting before.

"Oh no you don't! Not yet, Mr. Thief."

Looking genuinely hurt and a bit angry, Locke began to protest the title the maid had given him "HEY! I'm a treasure hun-" his protests cut off when the maid in front of him grabbed him by the head and pulled him into a full-on kiss. Breaking off the kiss and looking quite satisfied with herself the maid pulled away.

"Not that I'm complaining or anything, but what the hell?" Locke managed to say, too stunned to do more than stand there.

"That, Mr. THIEF, was for stealing my heart. I never got the chance to thank you for getting Edgar to get me out of that slimy tavern. Now go on, our newest little darling has a meeting with Prince Charming to get to after all."

Shaking her head at the absurdity of it all, Terra ended up leading Locke most of the way until she got lost somewhere near the chocobo stables and had to snap Locke out his befuddled daze. EVENTUALLY the pair made their way to the throne room where Edgar was doing his very best not to look uncomfortable on the throne. Locke brazenly stepped into the room before the chancellor had a chance to announce them to the king and decided to do it for him.

Raising his hand in a familiar wave Locke simply stated "Yo."

Shaking his head in mock disbelief Edgar welcomed his longtime friend. "You keep me here for an hour waiting for you, well beyond what I'd normally expect, and not only that, but I hear tell that my maids were spreading rumors about me while you were there... so I only have one question for you Locke Cole..."

Locke did his best 'intimidated subject' act for Terra's sake. "And that would be?"

"Why, why in the name of all that is holy... did you not think to invite me along?" Smiling widely as he finished, the Figaran king came down from his throne to embrace Locke as he would a brother. Turning his head so he could get a better look at the girl accompanying his friend Edgar nearly gasped at the sight before him.

"Now I REALLY am mad at you Locke. You've delayed me meeting this vision of beauty?"

"Sorry friend, but I was in the middle of uncovering a plot against your life." As he finished his sentence every soldier in the room stiffened, all of them coming instantly to a state of hyper-alertness. Edgar, however, saw the impish grin on Locke's face.

"Oh? and what dastardly villain has their eyes on me this time? And how do they plan to kill me?"

Locke not missing a beat took his cue from an old murder mystery novel he once read. "It was the seamstress and a harem of maids in the bedroom with 'babies ever after'... truly a dastardly plot." The king actually looked slightly ill after that.

"I always knew Eva-obaasan was evil..." the '-obasaan' Edgar attached to her nickname was a holdover from Eva's origins in the kingdom of Doma. It was a form of respect that she had long earned: the woman had single handedly raised both him and his brother Sabin while their parents were busy with the affairs of the kingdom. She was more his mother figure than his dearly deceased mother actually was.

Terra meanwhile was growing more and more frustrated as the moments of joviality passed. She had tolerated as much as she could. "Why?"

Edgar being the diplomat he was, recovered before the question even registered to Locke. "I'm sorry, but 'why' what?"

Terra, now resolute in her desire for answers, pressed on despite the growing dryness of her throat. "Why are you helping me? Is it because I'm Kefka's 'witch'and you just want my power for yourself? Or is it something else?" Now on the verge of tears, Terra defiantly glared at the young king daring him to try and abuse her.

"Three reasons. First of all, your beauty has captivated me! Second... I'm dying to know if I'm your type... I guess your... abilities... would be a distant third. But let me be clear about something: in no way will anyone in Figaro or any nation ever lay hand on you again as long as I have any say in it." The king, all joking and joviality gone from his countenance, was extremely dashing once he put on the royal airs. Terra nearly fell for him right there and then, and she would have if it weren't for a lingering doubt hanging in the back of her mind.

* * *

********** CHAPTER 3 εуλ 1990 **********

* * *

The flight back to Junon harbor had been a tense affair. After radioing the pilot, Tseng had driven back to the initial drop point to await pickup. This mission had taken a full five months for him to complete, and now he was finally, _finally_ getting to return to the city. Waiting in the buggy with two sedated little girls and the corpse of the young operative he had worked with wasn't anything unusual. The number of times he had returned from a mission with comrades or targets as corpses was, in hindsight, uncomfortably high.

It had led to a desensitizing effect on the stoic and efficient young man. Admittedly, most of the experiences Tseng had involved more obvious signs that the body in question was in fact not among the living. Having Yume looking as if she were nothing more than asleep stretched out on the rear most seats in the buggy was odd.

Tseng had checked her vitals no less than three times since arriving at the pickup point, almost in denial of what he knew to be true. But her case was just so ODD. Without any obvious signs of demise Tseng couldn't identify what had caused her to perish. Was it cardiac arrest? A stroke? Or something more esoteric?

For all of his observational skill and more than adequate First Aid training, Tseng was stumped. To him Yume looked very akin to an electronic device with the battery removed. All the hardware was intact and functional, but something was missing.

Even the coveted Phoenix Down recovery items, proven to bring wounded and dying soldiers back from the brink had failed to accomplish anything more than waste the dose.

And much to his personal chagrin, Tseng didn't have access to the more powerful curative Materia at the moment. His mission was deemed to be a solo affair, so the company didn't see fit to issue him any Materia with a spell akin to Revive or any of its more powerful derivatives, so he was forced to accept the sad reality:

Yume was dead, killed by her own hand in an act of sacrifice to save her younger sister.

And _he_ was going to have to explain to his superiors how it had happened. While he was waiting for the Highwind to arrive with the other team already onboard, Tseng began writing the after action report in his head.

'_Infiltration of AVALANCHE compound and objective retrieval successful, no wounds or injuries sustained by any Shin-Ra personnel. Expended 1 dose of "Dream Powder" to sedate recovery targets and 1 Phoenix Down post action in an attempt to resuscitate MBI operative Yume, who had ceased cardio pulmonary function due to…'_He paused for a moment before sighing. "Dammit, how do I word this to avoid sounding crazy, and avoid professor Hojo's attention? Saying she sacrificed her life energy will draw him like a magnet. As will any mention of her 'core', or saying anything about Materia… well shit. Think I might have to take a hit on my rep for this one," Tseng grumbled, voicing his frustration to no one. _'Expended 1 Phoenix Down post action to resuscitate MBI operative Yume who had ceased cardio pulmonary function due to an over expenditure of mana in order to resuscitate MBI primary objective Musubi. Phoenix down had no effect. Operative Yume confirmed D.O.A at time 1540.'_

As he finished up organizing his mental report, the Highwind pulled overhead and moved into a hover pattern to begin loading the buggy and its occupants for transit. Waiting for him and the girls in the ship's cargo hold were Karasuba and Sephiroth, both with matching stone-faced expressions and eyes that bespoke of murder most foul if he didn't appease them.

Sephiroth spoke first, ever the battle commander. His words were measured and emotionless. "Tseng, after we get the girls into a room for the trip. I expect your post action report within 30 minutes."

********Scene Break ********

Sephiroth's cabin was nice. It wasn't quite like the captain or the XO's cabins, but it really didn't need to be. It had everything he needed: a fold-away bed in one corner of the room, a private restroom, access to the officer's galley, and most importantly a desk with a computer on it so he could file his reports and clean the Masamune while they were in transit.

It was as he was cleaning off a scuff mark caused by casting Comet that Tseng knocked on the door. In his hand was a short stack of papers. "Commander, I have the reports you wanted."

Even as Sephiroth focused on the Turk and motioning for him to inside, his hands continued to mindlessly clean the sword's long blade. "Good, let me see what you have," the SOLDIER placed the gleaming sword on the desk and reached for the report.

Despite seeing the sword numerous times, Tseng couldn't help but find the naked blade more ominous than usual.

"…Hmm… 'cardiac-arrest induced by acute mana overdraw'…" glancing up from the report, Sephiroth gave the author an incredulous look.

"Is something wrong commander?" Tseng very well knew what was wrong, "acute mana overdraw" was complete bullshit. Anyone who had acted in the field had suffered the effects of overdraw at least once. All it really did was induce a massive sense of lethargy and prevent further casting. To doctors and politicians however, the phenomenon was widely unknown, and unexplained. So it had an air about it that leant credibility in certain light.

Sephiroth on the other hand knew and understood the use of the term very well.

"So, you obviously intend to cover something up with this report, from the excuse you are using, I'd wager that the cause of Yume's death isn't something you want the brass to know about." Placing the report on his desk and folding his hands together on top of it, Sephiroth continued. "I realize that we are both effectively the same rank in our respective command structures. I also know that you are only deferring to me on this mission due to positional authority. But I need to know the _real _reason that I have a corpse on board, and acute mana overdraw isn't going to cut it." His faintly glowing eyes narrowed just a little to drive the point home.

"My apologies, Commander, I did intend to conceal this information, but I am confident you will approve of my reasoning." Folding his hands behind his back Tseng adopted a common stance very similar to a military parade rest.

"In working with operative Yume, I discovered that she was able to fight on a level very similar to that of a SOLDIER operative ranked highly in the 2nd or 1st class levels. But she showed almost no sign of the mental scarring that comes along with either the training or the service in those kinds of fields."

Pausing to consider his next words Tseng took a deep breath before continuing. "In my opinion, operative Yume very well may have been able to fight on par with you sir. Unarmed."

Quirking one eyebrow, the SOLDIER commander found the suggestion of someone on his level almost amusing. "Her or me?"

"Her, commander." Tseng found himself holding his breath as he said this. He was almost expecting a reprisal from the commander for 'insulting'his skill. No reprisal was forthcoming, only clinical disinterest.

"While that is noteworthy, it's hardly worth concealing from command. So tell me, what did she do that makes you so nervous?"

Finding the clinical disinterest Sephiroth showed as a commander significantly easier to deal with than the exuberance and emotional outbursts that Veld was prone to, Tseng began easing slightly into the formal and professional atmosphere the swordsman exuded. Tseng decided to give the unedited version of the situation thanks to the detached interest.

"After we retrieved the girls from the AVALANCHE facility, we found that Musubi was extremely ill. Her respiration was near hyperventilation, and she showed no cognitive responses. Yume concluded that AVALANCHE had injured her in some irreparable way, and that Musubi would expire before we could bring her to a facility for treatment."

Gesturing silently to a chair Sephiorth allowed the Turk to continue uninterrupted. "In an effort to save Musubi's life, operative Yume somehow transferred what she referred to as her 'core' to Musubi. After she did this, her life apparently ceased immediately. Musubi's condition also improved to what you have seen almost as quickly. After the transfer was completed I sedated Musubi as per operative Yume's request."

Despite the disinterest he continued to hold over his features, a hint of curiosity could be heard in Sephiroth's voice. "This core as she called it. I assume you got a good look at it?" Nodding in acknowledgment Tseng affirmed his commander's assumption. "In your opinion Tseng, what did it look like?"

"Honestly? It looked like little more than a piece of dense red Materia."

Sephiroth leaned back in his chair and brought one hand up to cup his chin to contemplate the issues this had raised. "Alright, I can see why you would want to conceal that. Mana overdraw is certainly within reason to someone in the office." Finding the report to be within satisfactory standards, Sephiroth endorsed the report by signing on the back page, and attaching his report to it as well. Putting them all in a file folder and marking it for the directors of the Turks and SOLDIER respectively.

"Well now that that is done, tell me your impressions on the situation with Wutai…"

******** Scene Break ********

Karasuba felt sick. The adjustors and administrators of MBI had been expecting A LOT from the grey haired woman. From day one Minaka had filled her head with stories of divinity and her place at the vanguard of her sisters, holding the wolves and the worst of society at arm's length from anyone she cared about.

She had been trained in the sword from an early age, almost as long as Miya had been, but when it all came down to it her predatory grins, her hungry attitudes, they were all a cover. She put on airs and acted the hardened killer, but it was all a show. The truth of it was that Karasuba, Number 04, was an eighteen year old girl who had been piled high with expectations, and was only now beginning to grasp what they would mean.

Miya had been right, the sword she had leant Karasuba, while a legendary sword with an incredible history, was absolutely worthless in light of losing Yume. The fact that she hadn't been there to stop or help her in any way, even if only to comfort her as she died tore Karasuba apart.

Yume had been more than just a sister to Karasuba, she was her partner, her foil, the balance to her heartlessness. Where she was expected to be vicious and methodical, Yume was allowed to be tender and caring. With her death, the Black Wing of the Sekirei, the Raven's Feather, the Angel of Death, Karasuba had lost a part of herself she didn't know she had. And she didn't know how to deal with it.

She had thought that with the dissolution of Miya's "disciplinary squad" that she would have closed herself off from this kind of hurt, even though she had felt it in lesser forms before. Mutsu, the cold, calculating bastard that he is, had been pulled effectively out of her life to act as a bodyguard for the latest group of younglings to wake up.

Kazehana, the lovesick flighty dove that she was, could never focus on anything long enough to have a conversation with. After she got rejected by director Minaka, she had fallen into a deep depression, and to her a bottle seemed the easiest cure. If Karasuba's memory served, the flighty bird was somewhere in the Meedel islands without company approval.

Miya the mother figure of them all was becoming more and more attached to one of the adjustors the company employed 'Takehito Asama', and becoming less of a sister to rely on in battle and more the mother to help them hold together afterwards.

Yume had been different. Where Miya's squad had been intended as the "vanguard," the hand of enforcement and the guarantee that the rest of the girls would be able to live in peace. Yume was supposed to lead the first squad that would have a public face and she was very good at it.

Now that she was gone everything was ruined. The director would have to try and force someone else into her role, and the thought of it hurt.

Karasuba's typical sleepy, disinterested look she gave the world before had been a part of her act, distancing her from the world so she could further protect her sisters. Now though… the stony looks, the silence, the hatred of the world, it was all real.

Once Musubi and Kaho had been given a cabin to sleep in for the trip home, Yume had been put to rest on a cot in one of the cargo spaces near the bottom of the ship. Once she was there Karasuba never left her side.

******** Scene Break ********

Miya found the hospital, like all of its kind, to be choked with bureaucracy, red tape and the unpleasant smell of clinical disinfectants. She had received word from director Lazard that the Highwind had reached Midgar instead of dropping her girls off in Junon like the plan originally called for.

When she reached the docks in Midgar, Miya was informed that all of her girls had been admitted to the hospital in the 4th district she now found herself in. It was Shin-Ra owned but MBI operated. When she found them, all of her girls were in the same room. Kaho and Musubi were still sedated and sleeping quietly on hospital beds, various monitoring devices attached to Musubi.

Karasuba was sitting in a chair near the door, popping to alertness whenever someone approached. To Miya's eye she looked horrible: it appeared she hadn't slept in more than a day, and the events of the operation seemed to weigh heavily upon her. Kaho was in a bed next to Karasuba, closer to the door than Musubi. Her sleep was fitful underneath the thin hospital blankets. A fourth form could be seen on the last bed in the room veiled underneath a white sheet.

As Miya cautiously stepped into the room, Karasuba came to alertness her hand on the hilt of her borrowed blade. In an exhausted and quiet snarl Karasuba verbally assaulted the trespasser into her domain. _**"...How many times do I have to repeat myself? You science freaks aren't welcome here; get out or die where you stand..."**_ Her voice was barely more than a hiss, but it was so dark and cold that it felt like the temperature was dropping with every word. Turning to make good on her threat she saw that it wasn't one of the medics or scientists trying to get a look at the little girls.

It was Miya, one of the few people she was honestly glad to see at this point. "Miya... I'm sorry," shaking her head Karasuba sank slowly back into the pitiful little chair. Hurrying to her sister's side Miya pulled her into a quick but comforting embrace.

"Welcome back Karasuba. I trust everything went well?" Miya asked with a naive hope in her voice that she knew was wrong, especially after everything she had put Karasuba through, but she needed to hear what happened herself.

Shaking her head in denial at Miya's hope Karasuba explained to the best of her knowledge what happened, her voice still quiet from exhaustion "No Miya, it didn't go well, Yume's dead, Musubi almost died, and I wasn't anywhere nearby to help either of them, I was too busy _enjoying_ myself," the raven was nearly in tears now and becoming a little hysterical at the thought of her 'failure.'Miya could see that her sister was hurting badly.

"Shh... it's alright Kara, you followed the plan we had set out. Everyone agreed it was a good plan, too. I'm just glad to have you girls home." Pulling Karasuba back into the embrace to calm her down Miya ended up sitting on the floor with Karasuba instead of in a chair. They were like this for a nearly five minutes while her little Kara quietly mourned her loss with her eldest sister.

Once Karasuba had calmed down, Miya managed to get her to explain what happened.

********Scene Break ********

Professor Hojo's latest experiment had been horrific. He had come to the conclusion that infusing blood from the Cetra subject into a matching recipient would somehow imbue them with her abilities.

When failure after failure had occurred, he had simply decided that they weren't using big enough samples of her blood. After transfusing nearly two and a half liters of blood out of her body (it was fascinating how much he could draw without killing the remarkably robust specimen), one of Hojo's assistants called for emergency medical aid. Ifalna was drawn pale and in serious need of help, but the depraved scientist didn't care in the least.

All that mattered to him was the fact that his experiment was a failure. Time had been wasted and questions left unanswered. He would find _all_ the answers to _everything_, or he would die trying.

Ifalna and her daughter Aerith were transferred to one of the many hospitals under Shin-Ra control, one that primarily served the military and was used to dealing with cases of massive blood loss.

The science team had elected to have Aerith accompany her mother because nobody on the team knew anything about taking care of a six year old little girl, let alone reassuring her that 'mommy would be ok.'

Now that the mother and daughter were in the hospital, Ifalna was taken care of with speed and efficiency. The transfusion process started almost immediately and she was put on a saline drip to rehydrate her body. If properly monitored and watched for the next 72 hours or so, she would make a full recovery.

Aerith in the meantime was put into a children's holding area, one of those rooms painted to look like a farm with clouds and grass on the walls and a white fence surrounding the room, in an attempt to make it look cute and welcoming, but really only succeeding in making it creepy.

When she arrived there was another little girl with long brown hair and sad brown eyes that looked like she had been crying. She was on the floor playing with some of the metal erector sets that the hospital had provided. With her was a woman who had long lavender hair who patiently played with her.

As the nurse led her into the room both of the girls turned to see her. As she met their eyes Aerith felt a familiarity she had only ever felt from her mother. It almost brought her to tears.

Leading Aerith over to the two strangely familiar girls the nurse spoke up. "I apologize, Miss Miya, but could we ask you to look out for Aerith for us for a little while? Her mother was just checked in and we are slightly short-staffed at the moment."

"It's fine, she can join us. Isn't that right, Kaho?" extending her hand to the timid little girl, Miya invited her to play and talk about anything. When it looked like Miya had accepted the new child the nurse took it as her cue to leave and return to her duties.

"It's alright. Aerith wasn't it?" nodding her head Aerith came forward to see what the two girls were doing. "Kaho and I are building things. Want me to show you how?"

Instead of answering, Aerith all but collapsed on the floor, sniffling. "I want to see my mommy," she whimpered.

Miya shuffled closer to the weeping girl, her expression warm and motherly. "Oh sweetie, it'll be ok. We're in a hospital: the doctors will take good care of her."

Looking up from her project, Kaho had a curious look on her face. "What happened to her?"

Wiping her eyes with the back of her hands Aerith struggled to get the words out. "The Doctor ... *sniff* put a big needle in her... *sniff* arm, and pulled out... *sniff* lots and lots... *sniff* of blood... *sniff* to put it into someone else...*sniff* then mommy got sick."

"Sweetie," Miya's face slipped into one of her infamous 'smiles,'only without the evil aura and looked down to Aerith, "What was the name of the 'doctor'that did this to your mommy?"

Aerith for her part, was beginning to calm down, talking with the familiar woman seemed to ease her worry a bit. "Hojo I think, but he has lots and lots of other doctors to help him all the time."

Steeling herself to avoid frightening the already nervous Aerith, Miya made a promise to the sweet little girl. "Don't worry sweetie, once the doctors say its ok, we'll all go visit your mommy, ok?"

Placated by Miya's words, Aerith nodded and then took a seat between Kaho and the elder girl on the floor.

After the two little girls had enough of abusing the hospital play room, Miya had brought them with her to find something to eat for themselves and the older sisters, the still unstable Musubi and the ever watchful Karasuba. Some personnel from the MBI offices in Midgar had come to collect and transport Yume's body back to Junon which prompted the play date of Miya and Kaho.

When they came back Aerith got the chance to meet the two other girls. It was a shock on par with meeting Miya and Kaho for her. As soon as Karasuba's eyes met hers, Aerith found herself relaxing despite herself. Despite her haggard appearance and the sword at her side, Aerith found Karasuba less intimidating than the physically unimpressive scientist who dominated her life.

Karasuba found herself more nervous in the little girl's presence than she had been before. Sure, the little girl put her mind at ease in a very similar manner to the presence of her closest sisters, but she had never seen her before in her life. This girl couldn't be one of her sisters, could she?

When Musubi slowly woke up to eat and the girls started introducing themselves, Miya brought Karasuba outside to explain her suspicions about the girl. "Kara, do you remember the theory that MBI came up with about finding our partners?" Speaking low so as not to be overheard by passing staff or other patients Miya voiced her concern.

"You mean the 'Ashikabi'theory right? About us finding our destined ones and our bodies reacting…" Karasuba had never really believed in the concept; it touted emotions and virtues she wasn't allowed to indulge in, and relied on the providence of 'fate'more than she was comfortable with.

"Do you recall how it was supposed to work?" Miya was mainly using her younger sister as a sounding board, hoping that hearing her thoughts out loud would clear her head.

Karasuba took a moment to think before recalling the details. "If Takehito is correct, we would react to people who bore some genetic traces of our ancestors, it didn't have to be much, but it had to be there."

Nodding her head in assent, Miya confirmed the memory. "Yes, while it hasn't been proven to be 100% yet, none of us have reacted to anyone without the proper markers. Both Minaka and Takehito have been confirmed to carry them, and Kazehana reacted to Minaka…" Miya found she couldn't finish the sentence, as a luminous blush crept across her face and stifled any further comment.

"And you are reacting to Takehito." Karasuba almost deadpanned the obvious finish to Miya's statement. Miya confirmed by slowly nodding.

"Not that this isn't a fun history lesson Miya, but what does it have to do with that new girl?" Never one for pointless conversation on the best of days, Karasuba was quickly tiring both mentally and physically. She had still yet to sleep after the return trip from Cosmo.

Turning her head to the side to hide her embarrassment at forgetting her history, Miya relied on her younger sister. "Kara, what was the director's theory on what happened to us?"

In her exhausted state Karasuba barely registered that the ever mindful Miya had forgotten something like this. Normally she would have heckled her endlessly about it, but this was hardly normal… "The idiot believes that we are some kind of holdover from an evolutionary divergence in humanity…" Bringing a hand up to massage her forehead Karasuba continued. "He also claims that we were the victims of some kind of prejudice based genocide nearly 20,000 years ago or some such nonsense and we were all orphaned because of it."

A thoughtful hand on her chin, Miya considred some of the possibilities. "Now I may be more than a little wrong with this, but I think that little girl might have more than a 'little bit'of her genetics in common with us… if the professor was right, then our families managed to get us to some kind of safe house to sleep out the prejudice, but I'm sure not everyone would have been able to get there… Do you think it's possible that she is the descendant of a family that lived through it all in hiding?"

A sleepy but incredulous look on her face, Karasuba simply replied. "It _is_ possible if you are willing to assuming that professor numbskull is right… gods I need to get some sleep."

Noting the condition of her sister once more now that she brought attention on herself, Miya volunteered to watch over the girls in her place. "Here Kara, I'll take the Ohabari, you get some sleep in one of the beds. I'll make sure the girls are safe."

******** Scene Break ********

Ifalna's condition was critical. When the doctors began to work on her the prognosis had been grim. The experiments Hojo had performed had drained a catastrophic amount of fluid from her body. It took them almost 5 hours of constant care to bring her back to a stable condition. She was still delirious, weak, and in a very serious state, but provided she remain in bed she would recover. Once she had gotten to this point the doctor's decided it was safe for little Aerith to be with her mother again. They found Aerith in the room with MBI's special guest patients. A note on the open door warned doctors away from the room, but one of the nurses; the same who had left her with Miya, saw her playfully chatting away with the two younger girls.

An older girl, whom the nurse recognized as Miya was sitting watchfully in a chair nearby while another woman slept like the dead in the back of the room. Timidly the nurse decided to risk the wrath of the unruly guardian by knocking on the door and attempting to collect little Aerith. "Um… excuse me… is Aerith Faremis in this room?" only peeking her head in the door far enough to see into the room, the nurse looked ready to run at a moment's provocation.

Miya found the sight before her rather amusing; her little sister had apparently developed quite the reputation in the hours preceding her arrival.

Aerith hearing her name turned to the nurse "I'm here."

"Your mother is well enough to have you with her now, if you come with me I'll bring you to her." nervously eyeing the sword Miya still held in her lap the nurse stepped around the corner when no threat of violence was forthcoming.

Miya turned to Kaho and said, "Kaho, would you put this next to Karasuba for me please? And wake her up if anything strange happens." moving quickly so she could get back to Musubi, Kaho did as Miya asked her. "Now then, let's go see your mother shall we, Aerith?"

Jumping up from where she was on the bed with Musubi, Aerith took Miya's hand for the trip in a surprising show of trust for having only met a short while ago. As they followed the nurse out of the room, Miya purposefully closed the door and moved the warning note so it couldn't be missed.

The nervousness returned to the nurse as the lead the much colder-than-she-remembered Miya and the excited Aerith to her mother's room.

The sight in the private patient room almost brought Aerith back to tears: her mother was still hooked to a saline IV drip, her face still drawn and pale. An oxygen line looping round her head into her nose, she looked remarkably frail. "Mommy…" Running up to the bedside Aerith saw that her mother was awake and smiling at seeing her daughter. Her voice was quiet but steady.

"My little Airy… come here darling." Holding her right hand out for her daughter Ifalna noticed that the woman leading her daughter in wasn't a nurse. "Oh! Forgive my rudeness; I didn't realize that my Airy had brought a guest. I'm Ifalna Faremis, and I see that you've already met my daughter, Aerith."

Bowing at the waist, Miya introduced herself as well. "Pardon my intrusion. My name is Miya, the nurse had me look after little Aerith while you were recovering."

Looking into her face as she rose from her bow, Miya found the sense of familiarity wasn't a coincidence with the child. It happened with her mother as well. Ifalna noticed as well. "Thank you Miya, for taking care of my daughter for me." Iflana said with a weak smile on her face.

Aerith seeing her mother was well enough to talk climbed onto her bed on the side opposite of her IV. Nuzzling into her mother's side with a look of contented peace on her face, Aerith sank into a light sleep as her mother talked with her guest.

"Miss Miya, I'm sorry, I don't know you very well yet, and this is probably going to sound very odd, but please hear me out." Panting slightly from the exertion she felt from simply speaking, the mother continued on regardless of the discomfort. "When you entered the room I noticed something about you that was very familiar. I'm sure Aerith noticed as well."

Nodding her head slightly, Miya added "Yes, it's probably why she trusted me and my sisters so readily."

Iflana could barely believe what she was hearing. Not only was the woman in front of her not looking at her like she was insane. She was openly admitting awareness of the oddity that both mother and daughter were feeling. Still it was hard to believe it on one comment alone. "So you can feel it as well?"

"Yes, for me and my sisters the feeling was as perplexing as it is to you now." Miya's suspicions were becoming more and more likely as the conversation progressed. The unusual feeling of familiarity wasn't a fluke, and the more time she spent around Ifalna the more she came to feel her initial suspicions were correct. While Ifalna and Aerith weren't part of her flock, they were most definitely her sisters.

Deciding it was time to come clean with the story of her and her sisters, Miya brought a chair over to the bedside. "Ifalna, it's my turn to tell you something outrageous." Nodding her head in trepidation and allowing Miya to continue Ifalna lay quietly on her bed.

"A little over 15 years ago, a Scientist named Hiroto Minaka made a momentous discovery. This discovery allowed him to build the company you know as MBI."

Not seeing where this was going but not wanting to interrupt Miya either Ifalna nodded her head along with the tale.

"What he found upon lab examination was determined to be ruins from a civilization nearly twenty thousand years old. In the ruins were 108 crystals. Sealed inside those crystals, were children.

Drawing in a gasping ragged breath as she finally figured out where Miya was taking this story Ifalna found herself with a lack of words. "Children…"

Nodding her head slowly in affirmation Miya simply finished her tale by confirming what Ifalna was already guessing. "Those Children were me and my siblings."

Looking slightly overwhelmed at the prospect Ifalna tried to make sense of what she had heard. "Are you Cetra then?"

"No, the professor who found and raised us had taken to calling us 'Sekirei'after a species of bird." Shaking her head as she realized how ridiculous it sounded out loud Miya aired one of her theories. "I believe however that you and your daughter may belong to a family descended from us, or closely related to us at any rate."

Things started to make sense to Ifalna, if Miya and her sisters were related in any way to the Cetra, then Aerith would have picked up on it, the child had always been sensitive to issues of the spirit such as this.

And if they were related to the Cetra… she wasn't alone anymore… The realization hit her hard The room began to spin, the blood in her already delicately repaired system rushing from her head making her dizzy and lightheaded.

She and Aerith weren't alone; desperation began to take hold of Ifalna. She HAD to get her daughter away from that monster that put her here. And who better to safeguard her child than someone she could someday call a sister? "Please Miya, I know it's presumptuous of me, but I need your help."

The fear and desperation on Ifalna's face was broken only by the hope that the woman before her represented: a life free of the Shin-Ra, a life free of Hojo and his mad quest for power. "Please, you have to help get me and my Aerith get out of here. That madman Hojo will kill us."

Miya's face froze at the mention of Hojo, her eyes going cold and emotionless and the aura around her darkening considerably. "I am truly sorry but I don't know what I can do for you. With the condition you are in I can't encourage you to run, and bringing you out myself would be too risky, I can't fight all of Shin-Ra by myself."

Collapsing into tears at the hopelessness of it all Ifalna brought her hands up to her face stifling her cries Feeling her mother sobbing on the bed beside her Aerith woke from her nap.

Iflana decided to try one last thing. One last hope. "Please at least take my daughter with you when you go." Recognizing the desperation Iflana was showing for the truth that it was, Miya simply bowed to her and made a small promise.

"If you ever find your way to Junon, I will do everything in my power to shelter you. And I promise you that I will do my best to help Aerith grow up happy. We will both be waiting for you to come back to her."

Aerith started to cry as well, sobbing out a plea to her mother. "No mommy! Please don't make me leave! I don't want to leave you! Don't make me go!" Aerith begged.

Collapsing back onto her bed from the exhaustion Iflana managed to squeak out a small "Thank you…" before she passed out from the exhaustion and the monitors attached to her started to sound.

Taking the small girl by the hand to lead her from the room once again, Miya gave Aerith all the hope she could. "It's going to be ok sweetie, your mommy is strong, and once she gets better she will come find us in Junon. In the meantime you're going to have a lot of new sisters to meet."

As the doctors and nurses rushed in to help save Iflana's life, Miya quietly led Aerith from the room.


	7. Chapter 4

********** CHAPTER 4 **********

South Figaro had been occupied. After Kefka had attempted to burn Figaro castle to the ground, he had the Vector imperial army occupy all of the provincial areas of Figaro. This made the town enemy territory for the members of the 'Returners' an Anti-Imperial resistance movement. Locke Cole, a prominent member and the primary liaison between the resistance group and the king of Figaro, found himself separated from King Edgar, Terra, and the leader of the resistance, Bannon, while escaping on the Lethe River from an Imperial raid on the Returners' hideout.

Locke had ended up falling off of the raft and washing up to shore downriver of everyone else. Managing to drag himself ashore just to the south of the town, Locke found himself in dire straits.

The rest of the Returners were intending to rendezvous in the mining town of Narshe: the esper there had once again drawn the empire's eye.

And from where Locke stood now, a full mountain range, a river and a small port stood between him and his goal. The easiest route would be to sneak aboard a freighter and jump ship at the next port of call. That was of course assuming that the empire hadn't blockaded the harbor as well as the trade routes.

Getting into town had proven easier than Locke expected in spite the high walls that south Figaro had built around itself for protection. The fact that the Imperials had five guards and a suit of

M-tek armor at every gate and walkway in or out of town wasn't lost on the thief-in-denial, but it wasn't a major obstacle either.

Locke had absolutely no problem sneaking in undetected. The city sat on the border of a forest, and the trees grew right up till the wall. All his time as a "treasure hunter" had taught him the art of climbing and scaling odd surfaces.

Once he was inside the town Locke found that only certain people had the ability to move freely.

Namely certain merchants approved by the empire and of course the imperial soldiers themselves.

Of the two options the merchant would be less restricted in the areas he had access to, but limited in what he could access within those areas. A soldier could go anywhere, as long as it was in the line of duty.

Neither option was perfect, nor were either of them particularly pleasant.

In the end Locke had settled for a soldier's uniform. Locke had to search the town for a while before he stumbled on a group of soldiers in green armor, with face-obscuring helmets perfect for what he needed.

Now he just needed to get one of them alone… Instead of trying to distract the others and lure one away like he had read about in so many novels and plays before, Locke did the intelligent thing and simply stalked his target back to the inn he was staying at and stole the uniform while the soldier was asleep.

Stealing in through the 3rd story window, Locke found his target asleep on his bed sprawled out wide on the mattress, legs dangling over the edge and his head barely on the pillow. The scent of alcohol still clung tightly to him.

The uniform in question was thrown haphazardly into a corner of the room, the over-armor however, was stacked lovingly and precisely on the table. It very well looked like the soldier had gotten off duty, come back to his room to take off his armor and then went down to the tavern below to get jolly well sloshed.

Not that Locke could blame the guy, life as a soldier must suck… having to wear these clothes… have to do this… can't do that… can't talk to this guy… must salute that guy… too many damn rules for his taste. But as long as the uniform and armor got Locke where he needed to be, he wasn't going to argue. There were minor difficulties with the clothes: the soldier in question was slightly slimmer and shorter than Locke was, just enough to make his clothes uncomfortable after he managed to wrangle himself into them.

"Ugh… it's a little tight… but the price was right." Grunting as he pulled the belt closed around his waist, the treasure hunter finished his ensemble with the armor and helmet. Properly clothed and now able to move around fairly freely, the imperial impersonator decided to check out the harbor.

One of his concerns when he had decided on the uniform as his disguise was that he had absolutely no clue about the Imperial military structure. So when soldier and M-tek pilot alike stopped what they were doing and saluted as he passed. Locke found himself having a minor heart attack… _'Shhhhiiiiiitttt! I stole an OFFICER'S uniform. This is not going to end well.'_

Despite his nervousness, or maybe because of it, the trip from the mid-city inn to the harbor went fairly quickly. Acknowledging the soldiers he passed with either a nod of his head, or a small wave of dismissal, Locke managed to make it to the port unmolested.

'_I guess this uniform comes with __some__ perks after all.'_

Once he was inside the harbor the officer impersonator saw that it was absolutely _crawling_ with imperial troops. Out at the mouth of the harbor, a ship armored from bow to stern could be seen launching and retrieving air-tech armors. A lighter flying version of the ground based M-tech. _'Looks like the harbor option is out'_

Standing on the harbor break wall, Lock looked like an imperial inspector lost in thought. When an officer approached and addressed him.

"Sir, we have the harbor well under control."

Nonchalantly replying as if her were a superior, Locke coolly responded, "I can see that." Turning to face the other officer and looking him square in the face, Locke began to probe for information. "How are the other blockades going? The squads on the roads seem to be getting bored."

Nodding his head at the summary of the troops the officer gestured around the town. "Our troops on the main roads are all well disciplined, and each is accompanied by one of the new MEGA class M-tek armors. All travel in and out of the city is prohibited. Our troops are on full alert." Gesturing to the forest east of town the officer continued. "We even have a token force outside of the forest path leading out of the manor basement. Not that it's necessary."

Giving the real officer his best stone-faced-pissed-off-commander look Locke tried to dig for an easy escape from the town. "If you don't think the troops there are necessary then why have them posted at all? QUIT WASTING THE MANPOWER!"

Popping off a quick salute the officer responded immediately. "SIR! I'll relieve them of duty at once SIR!" and then rushed off to the east side of town and disappeared behind a building.

'_This isn't so bad,"_ Locke thought to himself._ "A guy could get used to that… now that I've secured myself an escape route, I might as well take advantage of the chaos. '_Grinning to himself at the thought of messing with the imperials, Locke headed for the biggest bar in town.

As he entered the bar, he was met with the cheers of a crowd welcoming a hero. Raising his arms in triumph as if he had just survived the 15th round in a cage match Locke paused briefly to assess the room.

It was a rowdy, crowded, and foul-smelling place. Absolutely PACKED with imperial troopers, groups of men could be seen scattered around the place. The back of the bar where the dancers were performing was the most crowded section. Officer and enlisted trooper alike could be seen mingling near the stage. At one table a group of five officers were sitting around playing poker, a rather large stack of money between them.

Seeing his mark, the officer impersonator confidently strode up to the table. "Evening gentlemen, mind if I sit in on a hand or two?" The officers around the table all had their respective helmets off, revealing a mixed group; no single ethnicity seemed to be dominant within the imperial army, however there were absolutely zero women.

Scooting to the side, one of the officers answered for the table. "Sure, 1000gp ante though." Pulling a chair up to the now vacant space, Locke pulled the requisite coins from his bag and tossed them blithely on the table.

The officer on his other side spoke up. "Looking to kill some time before duty?" nodding his head in affirmation, Locke pulled his helmet and bandanna off in one motion.

Thinking to himself, _'I doubt the empire has my face on a poster yet, besides I'm in uniform. If they do recognize my face it'll be passed off as a coincidence if I act cool.'_

True to his instincts, the other officers around the table merely smiled as he settled into the game.

The game itself was a pretty standard game of poker. It lasted nearly an hour before Locke had cleaned them out and swept the table. Cries of 'shark' and 'cheater' (while true) were vehemently denied, and eventually silenced when Locke bought the next two rounds and table dances for the group. All told he was up nearly 30,000gp, and a whole crapton of privileged information.

During the game one of the other players had let slip that he had gotten off of watch down in the mansion basement. Apparently there was a prisoner down there that the empire had a VERY high priority on. This set off all kind of warning sirens to the thief.

'_If the prisoner is that important to the empire, they might be just as important to the Returners.'_

Once the game had ended and the tempers were paid off with wine and women, Locke had pleaded out of the revelry with the excuse of upcoming guard duty downstairs, same as the other officer. It was an easy enough lie once he figured out the shift changes. After the hour long game of poker the next shift was due in about 4 more hours, more than enough time to scout the place and figure out the patrols.

With the patrols mapped and skills as sharps as any razor, Locke made his way towards the prisoner's makeshift cell in the basement. The door to the room had a small barred window to promote ventilation and keep anything stored in the room from spoiling. Knowing he had a few minutes before the next patrol wandered by, Locke, still in his appropriated officer's uniform, peeked through the window.

The sight within would stay with him for years.

Two men in uniforms with insignias different than the ones on his disguise were cleaning blood off of their gloves. Below them, crumpled on the floor was a pretty young blond woman, no more than 18 at the very oldest. Her face was bloodied and there were marks across her body showing the mistreatment the guards had been giving her. Their knuckles clean once more, the pair turned to leave the room while a third guard stood from a chair in the corner and saluted as they passed.

Locke, however, felt screwed. If he was caught and interrogated by those officers down here, he didn't know how to respond. Their insignias were different enough that he wasn't sure if he outranked these guys, or if the reverse was true.

So, like any good thief, Locke began to panic.

'_Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap, oh crap what do I do, what do I DO? …WAIT!'_

Looking around and overhead, Locke felt hope blossom at the high ceilings and their supports.

'_This place has rafters!'_

Jumping and levering himself up into the solid wood beams, the thief got out of sight just in time. The officer pair exited the door just as he pulled his legs over the beam he was hiding on.

"Don't get too comfortable General. We won't forget about you or the… _debt of gratitude…_ we owe a traitor like you." Sneering as he said the words the larger of the two officers turned and left while his partner closed and locked the door behind them.

A jolt of terror shot up Locke's spine as the pieces fell into place. That officer had referred to the woman as general… in an army without ANY women in the rank and file, a female general stood out. Now that Locke had a title to match the face he knew who she was…

The Ice Queen of the Imperial Army. The woman was single-handedly responsible for the razing of two towns and the slaughter of another. Celes Chere… traitor…

The thought was staggering. If SHE was the prisoner that the empire was placing so much value on then Locke HAD to get her out. Besides, with how she was being treated, there was no WAY she could still be loyal to the empire… was there?

Making up his mind about the situation Locke dropped from the rafters quietly. The tumbler locks on the door were easy to pick. Something so simple couldn't hold a 'treasure hunter'of _his_ caliber out, and they knew it. That was part of the reason there was a guard inside the room. As the picks popped the last pin, the thief who took his name from the device peered over the edge of the window. The guard inside appeared to be sound asleep, his helmet was pulled low over his eyes, his feet were propped up on a bucket in front of him, and his hands were folded on his chest.

Locke could only sneer in derisively at the sight.

'_Typical, give a guard an inch and they will sleep for a mile. Not that I'm complaining.'_

It certainly made his line of work easier.

As he opened the door and stepped inside, still bedecked in his pilfered uniform in case the lowly guard woke up, Locke noticed something odd. His footfalls in the heavy imperial boots, no matter how hard he tried, ALWAYS made noise. As soon as he crossed the threshold however it went silent. Utterly so. Turning to regard the sleeping sentinel Locke noticed it looked as if he was snoring, but no noise was forthcoming.

'_Tricky bastards. They must have a silence effect over the area, Terra could use magic after all, and she was originally an empire soldier… willingly or not. Makes sense if the rumors about our dear general are to be believed.'_

Now confident that he wouldn't wake the sleeping guard with too much noise, Locke confidently strode over to the wall with the prisoner.

She looked like hell. Today wasn't the only time the guards had been here and it showed. In addition to the physical mistreatment, Celes looked like she was suffering from a lack of food and water. Locke could understand why though: sitting in the corner closest to the girl was a collection of plates with moldy bread on them and cups of putrid water.

Moving to unlock the chains so he could carry the poor woman out of the makeshift dungeon, Locke found the manacles to be almost as easy to unlock as the door had been. It seemed that the empire was putting WAY too much faith in the abilities of their chosen guard. Once the lady general was free of the restraints, Locke collected her belongings from a pile near the still snoring guard. Taking note of the craftsmanship of her sword he bundled everything together in her cloak and tied it around his neck. Lifting the girl in a "princess carry" Locke and the beleaguered general made their way out of basement through a tunnel and into the forest he had so conveniently emptied of guards earlier.

********** CHAPTER 4 εуλ 1992 **********

Wutai was a sovereign nation independent of the Shin-Ra electric power company, and its De-facto world government. Rich with culture and history the kingdom of Wutai could trace its origins back over 2000 years, making it the oldest organized kingdom on the planet.

Culturally Wutai respected the planet, and sought to preserve nature, so the idea of using Mako energy was unacceptable to the majority of its citizens. This was a point of major contention with Shin-Ra, and when the power company moved to try and buy land for a reactor on Wutai soil, negotiations soured quickly, eventually leading to outright open armed conflict.

Before the development of black powder weapons, or mako powered weapons, the Samurai, and Shinobi that Wutai trained were the most feared warriors on the known face of the planet. The Samurai served the lords and ladies of the nation as personal bodyguards, and as elite shock troops. The Shinobi served the role of special ops and espionage.

If it weren't for the fact that SOLDIER members were generally more powerful combatants, and that the Turks were better at the intelligence game, the branches of the respective factions would be fairly equivalent. The tipping factor was the Shin-Ra regular army, Wutai had no equivalent for the masses of trained gunmen, nor the armored vehicles that they traveled in.

The opening Volley of the 'war' had come from the conference room where president Shin-Ra, accompanied by his aide's Scarlet, Heddigar, and Reeve were meeting with Lord Godo Kisaragi about the reactor placement and installation. For his part, lord Godo was quiet and contemplative, his council and aide's however were not.

An argument about the sustainability and cleanliness of the reactors broke out between Heddigar and one of the Wutai councilmen and escalated beyond a reasonable business disagreement. A member of the royal guard had to step in to protect the councillor. Sephiroth had stepped forward to protect the president, and Heddigar was on his own, and wasn't happy about it.

After being menaced back away from the councilmen, Heddigar tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his rear. The guard acting in as diplomatic a manner as the situation called for offered the rude executive a hand to his feet. When the proud, (but in Scarlet's opinion absolutely retarded) executive slapped the helping hand away with disdain, Lord Godo quickly called an end to the negotiations, claiming offense at the way his guard was treated.

From there rumors from within Shin-Ra and Wutai spun out of control, each side painting the other to be responsible for faults FAR greater than had actually transpired. Whipping the people of both nations into a fever pitch, war was inevitable.

Shin-Ra had the advantage from the start, with both its established army, and the elite units of both SOLDIER and the Turks, it was hard to compete with the former weapons development company on any front. But for a few months the sovereign nation did just that. Taking advantage of the vast stores of natural materia the country produced, and the specialized training of their combat forces they were able to hold key points across the globe for months.

The conflict saw Wutai winning most of the early battles. The fighting was spread far and wide on the central continent, the Mideel islands, and there were even small skirmishes between the Turks and Shinobi in the streets of Junon.

After a particularly violent brawl between Reno, Rude, and a group of Shinobi caused extensive damage to an MBI facility Director Hiroto decided to dedicate resources to the Shin-Ra war effort, on behalf of MBI. Karasuba and Kazehana, and the unstable but powerful elemental pair of Akitsu, and Homura came under the direct control of 'General' Sephiroth.

It had been only a few months since the Cosmo incident, and Sephiroth still remembered the woman he had worked with, Karasuba, she had been a marvelous swordswoman, inexperienced in real battle but skilled and full of potential. Though her appearance had hardly changed at all the intervening months appeared to have been hard on her, the mirthless expression on her face before had been a mask. Now however, Sephiroth recognized the anger simmering just below the surface.

But the young boy and the other two women that MBI had working with him were a mystery to the general. All three of the women were dressed in similar short black dresses and grey over robes. The young man however was in a black suit, with a long black overcoat.

Something had struck Sephiroth as odd on first sight, the fact that of all four Kazehana with her lustrous black hair was the only one that had a hair color in any shade other than a grey of some kind. He briefly had to wonder if it was a familial trait. Introductions were swift, Sephiroth had already been familiar with the abilities of the swordswoman and she made a fine compliment to any squad the general could put together. The others were somewhat more difficult to place.

Kazehana was an amazingly beautiful woman, her figure would leave most men drooling, and most women green in envy. She was a gregarious woman, fond of drink and good times.

She also happened to have an innate control over the very air around them, control she could use to lethal effect.

Akitsu was another stunning beauty, similar in form to Kazehana, but possibly a few years younger. She sometimes seemed to be slow of wit, and speech. Her sometimes slow speech pattern left her cold and withdrawn, afraid to try and join conversation for fear of being left out. But when she spoke it was always pointed always important. She didn't lack for intelligence

And much like Kazehana she had control over one of the fundamental aspects of the world.

The icy chill of winter, She was able to summon Ice from the very air itself, in nearly limitless quantity, and almost instantly. And nearly as quickly force it to disappear without a trace.

Homura was more of an enigma, proclaiming himself male, despite his very effeminate figure and posture. His voice was a borderline tenor and he had a face that accentuated the feminine charm he possessed. All in all he was a 'pretty boy' Sephiroth thought it was possibly a side effect of his age. But his temper was something else altogether, the slightest provocation would send him into rants, and tirades. And when his temper REALLY hit the limit he resorted to violence only heard of in tales about the berserkers of old. and the unfortunate thing was the element Homura took advantage of... Fire. Like Kazehana and Akitsu he was an elemental, able to summon and manipulate pure flame with naught but a thought or gesture.

Even after the demonstrations of their abilities, and proving that they had zero materia on them, Sephiroth still found it hard to believe that the three were able to manipulate fire, ice, and wind, as easily as he drew breath. And not only did they manipulate their element with startling ease, they also had SIGNIFICANTLY more control than even he had with a mastered materia of any of the base kinds. The addition of these three women and the young man added a kind of versatility to his forces that the general had been dreaming about for YEARS.

******** Scene Break********

Zack Fair was an enthusiastic young man. Growing up in Gongagga, his parents had called him 'irrepressible,'his teachers, 'inattentive'and his friends; 'crazy'. Whatever they called him it was all the same in the end. He was a young man filled with nearly boundless amounts of energy, drive, and ambition. Early on he had heard of the SOLDIER program that Shin-Ra had been starting, and he knew immediately that it was his destiny to join.

With as much energy as he had, he just wasn't fit to run his father's weapon store or to take up the life of an academic. Hell sometimes reading the newspaper took too long for him. But the life of adventure that a career in SOLDIER offered? That he could live with. And on his 16th birthday he set out to prove it to everyone. The only help he received had been travel money from his parents. Gongagga was a long way away from Midgar, and Zack hadn't saved much money yet.

When he did finally arrive at the Shin-Ra tower it was with a face-splitting smile and an exuberance that made most of the building staff shake their heads in dismay.

The battery of tests for the potential candidate was thorough: physical fitness, reaction speed, cognitive speed, motor control, endurance and mental health it took nearly a week of nothing but testing to complete. The good news was that as a candidate he was already getting paid, nowhere nearly as much as he would make once he was in, but still it was something to live off of in the meantime.

Once the week was over and the results were reviewed, Zack got the news he wanted: he made it in. On top of that, the doctors told him he was a nearly IDEAL candidate; his irrepressible nature and natural energy would serve him well as a member of SOLDIER. He received his uniform and his first set of equipment soon after that. But he still had one more thing to go before he was a REAL member of SOLDIER: the mako infusion.

When the doctors had explained what that entailed it made Zack more than a little nervous.

He would be put into an artificially induced coma and submerged in pure mako for a week. And right after that, a series of chemical injections would augment his already natural abilities to well beyond human limits, and give him the trademark 'mako eyes'. Once all of this was done he would be woken up as a full member of soldier, and his training would begin.

The training itself was fairly straightforward. no fancy forms or kata's to learn. No mystical sensei to follow while he was teaching the secrets peace and one-ness with the universe... no it was simple and straightforward, just how Zack liked it. Fight someone better than you. Once you could fight on par with him, you found someone else. Rinse repeat.

The first week of this served the doctors and physicians of Shin-Ra more than it did anyone else.

The doctors ALWAYS had a vetted 1st class go up against the recruits. Just to set a benchmark, and to see how the recruit would handle a potential no-win scenario. Zack surprised the moderators of his tests nearly constantly.

In his first spar for instance... Zack was paired up against one of the senior 1st, Angeal Hewly. The fight lasted more than ten minutes. And it wasn't that Zack stood any glimmer of a chance, far from it. While it was apparent to the moderators that Angeal WAS holding back significantly, Zack could have sworn differently.

No the fight lasted so long, because every time Zack tried and failed with an attack, and was sent violently ricocheting off of a nearby wall, or the occasional ceiling, he would get back up and try a new tactic. Invariably they were all unsuccessful, but his resilience and determination had made Angeal take serious notice of the fresh pup. The moderators however were flabbergasted.

Any single ONE of the throws Angeal had sent Zack on would have shattered the bones of any normal man and hospitalized him for life. For that matter, many of the enhanced SOLDIER operatives could only take one or two of those kinds of hits. Zack endured them pretty much once every ten seconds for more than ten minutes straight without showing any sign of slowing down or even noticing the impacts. The scientists all agreed in that first showing, If Zack Fair ever reached his potential as an operative, he would be a veritable monster possibly rivaling Sephiroth himself.

The next few months of trial and error proved along similar lines. Every indication showed that the 16 year old boy who had wandered into Shin-Ra HQ half starved, and demanded to be given the admission for SOLDIER. And then three months later was promoted to being the youngest 2nd class in the (admittedly short) history of the program, Was physically incapable of accepting the concept of no-win.

This attitude, combined with the memories of the first spar the excitable young pup had, encouraged SOLDIER 1st class Angeal Hewly to take the new blood under his "wing" as an apprentice. To guide and mold along a proper path, grooming him to be a leader of men.

By the latter end of εуλ 0000 Zack had grown into a fine example of what SOLDIER aimed to be originally. Strong, swift, just, and honorable. Angeal couldn't be more proud of the pup he had been mentoring.

When the tensions with Wutai had escalated to open conflict, Zack had been eager to get to the front lines to do his part, Angeal had however advised patience. SOLDIER wasn't a major unit, and front lines operations were best left to the standard infantry.

A 3rd Class would occasionally be assigned to supervise squads out in the field but 2nd's and 1st's would only be used in clandestine special ops.

Eventually as the war began swinging more and more inevitably to Shin-Ra's favor, Zack did eventually get to see more action. The engagements had become less infantry and more and more guerrilla tactics. Wutai specialized in this kind of hit-and-run tactics.

The troops that they deployed into these kind of combat areas bore the title of 'Shinobi' and they were extremely adept at guerrilla warfare. Urban, deep jungle even in the high mountains surrounding the province of Wutai itself no matter the environment the 'Shinobi' units deployed from the great pagoda were formidable. and while their numbers were far far less than that of the Shin-Ra infantry, they still numbered in the multiple hundreds, and fought better than any of the infantrymen.

So when the Shin-Ra regulars found the main bridge up to the city held against them by a group of Shinobi, SOLDIER was called in to handle it. Zack couldn't have been happier.

Angeal had been specifically tasked with freeing up the Shin-Ra regulars, but seeing as he had made Zack his apprentice he got to come along too. The truck ride over had been rough. Zack had WAY too much energy to simply sit around and wait, so he started pacing around the bed of the transport, and doing squats. This in turn ended up shaking the vehicle making it hard for the driver, which in turn made the ride bumpier for everyone else.

Once the transport arrived at the edge of the bridge and the two operatives disembarked, the sight that awaited them was that of an entire brigade of troops sitting around on vehicles, crates, and anything else that was handy, awaiting orders to continue the push north.

On the other side of the large suspension bridge was a pagoda style tower that served as the anchor point for the bridge. A car could drive across the bridge and through the bottom of the tower, stopping to pay a toll inside the gatehouse. A similar tower was erected on the side the SOLDIER's were on now as well.

Approaching the ranking officer Angeal began his preparations for the mission. "Reports say that an enemy unit holds the other tower, what kind of numbers are we expecting?"

The O.I.C (officer in command) was a young man in his late twenties. A dark red uniform singled him out from the rest of the troops as a commander, and his bearing showed he had experience. "we have visual on a group of no more than twenty 'Shinobi' holding the tower, scouts also report signs of explosives set along the cables and supports of the bridge."

"Holding the bridge itself hostage eh?" Angeal speaking aloud was thinking of the best way to deal with the situation when Zack spoke up.

"Why don't I rush the tower, while you take a couple of E.O.D and get rid of the bombs on the support?" thumping a fist into the palm of his other hand brought his plan to the table.

"Not bad… but you really think you can handle all of those 'Shinobi' yourself?" A smirk spreading across his face as he egged his apprentice on, Angeal had already decided to go with a similar plan.

"OH COME ON! You know I can take those guys Angeal! Just let me at em!" Zack not seeing what his mentor was doing was spinning himself into frantic levels. Pulling his SOLDIER issued broadsword off of his back and swinging it experimentally, the excitable pup couldn't help but smile in anticipation.

"Alright. Alright. I get it; I'll let you take the tower. Just remember…" Angeal putting his hand on his apprentice's shoulder. "It's not just your pride on the line here Zack, it's the pride of all of SOLDIER, don't tarnish it by losing, or dying now."

"YES! You're the best Angeal!" jumping in the air and letting out a cry of victory Zack looked very much like the cat who ate the canary.

"Just don't rush it; we need to assemble our E.O.D team before you go." Angel could only chuckle at the enthusiasm his pupil displayed.

Ten minutes latter and the squads were ready. The plan was simple, exactly how Zack like liked it, rush in, break stuff to make a distraction and let Angeal and the E.O.D guys worry about the rest.

After receiving the Signal from Angeal Zack charged across the bridge, far faster than any normal man could hope to. The squad of 'Shinobi' watching the bridge from the tower did not think that it was worth blowing up the bridge for one person. But that one person was very much worth a few cases of bullets. And as the glint of automatic weapons being lowered in the sunlight shone in his eyes, Zack could only smile all the wider.

Here was the excitement he was looking for.

********Scene Break ********

Sephiroth had his own part to play in the conflict with Wutai; He essentially served as the final option in a conflict. Especially since the foursome MBI had sent along began working with him.

Rumors he had been intentionally engineering recently began circling around the battlefield that he was constantly surrounded by a cloud of mist that moved as he willed it, and that he could be in multiple places on the field at once. And that his shadow was alive, and just as dangerous as the man himself. And it served just as much of an effective weapon as the Masamune itself.

Sephiroth and his 'disciplinary' squad were currently standing at the ground floor entrance to a 30 story hotel in Costa De Sol, Apparently the president's son had gotten himself kidnapped by some of the AVALANCH eco-terrorists after a failed meeting with some wutai diplomats. And because of the VIP nature of the target, Sephiroth had been pulled from his station in the war to come resolve this.

Turks had infiltrated the Hotel hours ago, Reno and Rude, the two 'aces' of the entire department, were standing outside of the doors to the conference room that the President's son was in. Tseng and a petite Red-headed female Turk that was being referred as Cissnei to were outside with the general feeding him information and forming a plan.

"We have the hotel occupied for the most part, with the exception of the conference room the target is in, and the basement storage rooms everything else is under our control."

Tseng with a rollout schematic of the hotel began highlighting his operation. "We have operatives in the stairwells and in the elevator lobbies on every level. And Reno and Rude are watching the conference room for changes."

Folding his arms over his chest neutrally as he examined the plans, Sephiroth couldn't help but wonder where he came into the picture. "Tseng, it seems to me that you have this well in hand. Let me be blunt. Why do you need us here?"

Tseng took the praise the general gave him in stride, a small smile spreading across his face. "Thank you for the assessment general, but unfortunately my department lacks the raw firepower and the precision to extract the target. Reports indicate that there are at least ten fully armed and armored troopers in the room with the president's son. And there is the possibility of explosives as well."

Pointing to the conference room on the drawing as he explained. "This is where we have a little bit of wiggle room in the plan; the room in question has a glass ceiling. And if you so desired you could enter from there, distracting the AVALANCH members so my team could extract the VIP, or you could go in the front door and let us handle the distraction."

Either plan was viable, but as Tseng had prior admitted, the Turks lacked a bit of the firepower that SOLDIER came with standard. And in a VIP rescue _he _really was the best option.

"We will enter from the roof. Have your men enter to extract Rufus 10 seconds after the glass breaks."

Nodding his understanding Tseng turned to Cissnei to relay the message in person to the team at the door. Radio frequencies could be hacked too easily.

The plan set, and all parties informed, Sephiroth's squad headed to the elevator. They _could_ jump up there, but why waste the effort when the turks went to all the trouble of occupying the building beforehand?

********Scene Break********

Zack deflected a bullet off of the flat of his sword as he rushed towards the gatehouse tower. Adrenaline spiking high Zack was in his own little world, just the enemies he had to eliminate and how he was going to get it done.

'_Ten shinobi on this side, looks like 2 per floor, and all of them with automatic rifles, and another ten suspected inside the building, probably similarly equipped.'_

Reaching the base of the tower, Zack didn't even bother with the door. A quick 'quake' spell aimed at the wall of the tower was enough to create footholds so he could launch himself through a window and straight at one of the shinobi.

Sheathing his sword before he jumped Zack braced himself for the melee that was about to begin. The Wutai'n operative didn't know what to think, if it had been anyone else the tactic would have been suicide, but Zack managed to pull it off.

Once Zack reached the window the 'shinobi' operative was in he grabbed the ledge and threw himself at the operative in a shoulder charge. With his sword still sheathed on his back the hilt of the blade hit him in the diaphragm, driving the air out of his lungs. With the momentum remaining from his leap Zack drove himself and his enemy to the ground.

Landing hard on his enemy Zack felt a loud *CRACK* as the charging SOLDIER broke the sternum and probably a couple of ribs in his opponent. Rolling to his right off of his opponent, a quick left jab at the still prone ninja rendered him unconscious.

'_one down 19 to go'_

The partner of the now out-of-commission ninja was already charging Zack, attempting to eliminate the dangerous opponent before he could brace himself. Attacking in a quick double slash combo followed by an elbow to his enemy's diaphragm, much like the SOLDIER had done to his partner.

Zack was still off balance from his roll to his feet, and was unable to block the vicious assault from the Shinobi, receiving a light slash across his chest as he brought himself to his feet, he was able to block another slash by deflecting it with one of his bracers, and the elbow he met with his forehead.

Zack felt his blood rush as he drew the broadsword from it place on his back.

Rolling backwards to distance himself, Zack activated his power attack materia and launched himself into the air and brought his sword down HARD on the Shinobi in front of him. Raising his blade and bracing it with his hand to stop the blow, the Shinobi died with a look of shock on his face as his blade shattered under the pressure of the 2nd class SOLDIER's strike.

_'Two down 18 to go...'_

Recovering from the quick melee and turning to exit the room. Zack found the tower to be rather expansive. Large ceremonial rooms occupied most of the floor. A staircase built into the inside of the wall allowed for passage between floors, and small chambers like the one he had just left lined the exterior of the tower. Built of stone and floored with hardwood, it was a rather impressive structure all around.

The room he had vaulted to happened to be situated right next to the stairs, so it was an easy climb to the next floor. What he saw here made him pause for a full ten seconds in awe.

The tower was a fifteen story affair, excluding the gatehouse and tunnel on the ground floor.

All in total it was a nineteen story building from ground to tower top. Anchor points for the bridge were situated on every floor.

The window Zack had vaulted into was on the first floor. From the second floor up through the 14th floor, a giant statue either painted, or plated in gold occupied a void in the room. It was a humongous dragon coiling around itself at the base, and reaching up to the ceiling, the head came back down to look on the objet held between its outstretched upper paws. The object in question was a pure crystal orb, carved to represent the continents of Gaia.

The sight was overwhelming. His broadsword still in hand but lowered as his arm lost the strength to hold it at the ready, Zack nearly missed the shadows of the remaining Shinobi gathering on the floors above him, and coming down to confront him. What drew his attention to the growing peril was the shadow of one shinobi being cast on the crystal as he jumped from the 4th floor down to attack zack.

Instantly back on alert Zack took a mental stock of his supplies as he readied his blade.

'_I've got power attack, High jump, Thunder, Cure, Quake, Dash, and Elemental strike equipped. _

_Left my damn potions back with Angeal… stupid mistake. Lots of them, one of me… need to end this fast.'_

Activating his elemental strike materia, Zack braced for the falling Shinobi, electricity arcing over his blade as he made contact, the falling enemy acted like he got hit with a taser. What had been a controlled and practiced, assault, ended in an embarrassing mess on the ground, the failed attacker twitching violently from the unexpected electricity, found himself unconscious after Zack's steel toed military issue boots, became acquainted with the side of his head.

'_Three down 17 left.'_

The remaining Shinobi operatives emboldened by their numbers finally reached the floor Zack was on. Ten of them had come down, and the rest had rifles trained on the combat.

This was looking to be rough.

********Scene Break********

Standing on the roof of the hotel, the night sky at his back, the gentle fog that his team was creating slowly creeping around his ankles, Sephiroth couldn't help but smile at the poetry of the situation. Genesis would have been citing prose for days after something like this.

When he was growing up the scientists in Hojo's labs had said he had a flair for drama that would have made him a fine actor under different circumstances. And aside from Genesis, Sephiroth was one of the only people in the entire company of Shin-Ra to have the entire original manuscript of LOVELESS memorized, or to appreciate it. He actually already had the tickets for this years opening night pre-purchased.

And much like the famous stage and literary piece, the situation he was engineering now played to his sense of drama, hard. Over the course of the short time they had been working together this had become a well rehearsed tactic for the small group.

Akitsu would create a rather large amount of delicate ice shards, Homura would melt them creating a vapor mist, and Kazehana would control the resulting fog, he and Karasuba would then work in patterns around each other clearing out the area. This tactic had single handedly spread his engineered rumors.

The only difference here was the contained space made Kazehana's job easier. With the MBI elementalist's supporting him, and Karasuba fighting beside him, he felt un-touchable, more so than usual. The poor members of AVALANCH didn't stand a chance. Having Akitsu drop a chunk of ice through the window, Sephiroth landed just before the mist filled the room. Karasuba dropped in shortly after. Cries of panic and confusion followed the pair into the room.

Karasuba having been briefed earlier on the ground floor was to get the VIP out of harms way, and closer to the doors so the Turks operatives could extract him. Then she was to join Sephiroth in massacring whatever remained of the terrorists. In the meantime, the remaining members of the strike team were to use their respective abilities, and pick targets of opportunity.

It was all over as soon as Karasuba hit the ground with the VIP. As she tackled him to the ground she heard the Masamune sing through the air.

It amazed her that the swing of a sword could sound musical. With as long and thin as the blade was it caused the air to shriek from the high speed slashes and jabs. To Karasuba it sounded like a choral symphony punctuated by the screams of the dying. The way Sephiorh handled the blade had always had her attention, now after having the chance to see him in combat up close, she realized there was an odd heat spreading throughout her body. Dismissing it quickly as an oddity she re-focused on the fight.

In that single slash Sephiroth had disemboweled three of the terrorists, their screams sending the others into a panic. Gunpowder based rifles began firing randomly in the room. The smell of the expended powder hanging heavy in the air afterwards. With the musical sound of a second swing from the Masamune, and two more death wails joined the chorus. When Karasuba hit the ground she found herself and the VIP surrounded by a thick dome of ice.

For a moment she was confused, did one of the terrorists actually get in a position to hit her and caused Akitsu to protect them? But as she thought more about it she remembered a trick that Kazehana and Homura had been working on.

Kazehana would purify the air, refining it into pure oxygen; once it was pure she would compress it as much as she could. Homura would then send a single gout of flame into the room, causing an explosion of immense heat, and absolutely MASSIVE pressure. Anyone unprotected would find their lungs scorched, scared and deprived of air from the vaccume the blast would create, in addition the moisture in their bodies would likewise be flash boiled away by the immense heat.

Akitsu had erected the dome of ice over her and the VIP, presumably over Sephiroth as well. A massive flash of light, and the rocking of the floor, much like a major earthquake confirmed her suspicions.

After the dome dissipated, and Karasuba could stand again she saw a completely different sight than she had expected. The room had been emptied of EVERYTHING, aside from the domes of ice over herself and Sephiroth. The tables, chairs, desks, everything that wasn't bolted to the floor was violently sucked into the air as the explosion expanded. For that matter the room seemed to lack windows... and doors...

The pained groans of Reno and Rude, pinned underneath the heavy oak doors, on the other side of the hallway, attested to the fact that the overpressure had literally blown the doors off of their hinges.

looking up to the now significantly wider hole in the roof, Karasuba only saw Akitsu on the ledge, pained moans from the other two from somewhere further from the edge explained their absence.

Sephiroth looking up as well posed a simple question. "Akitsu... What happened?"

Pointing to where Kazehan and Homura presumably lay on the roof "... bored..."

Massaging the headache between his eyes Sephiroth had to remind himself that for all the discipline the team had shown, they were in fact NOT military trained. "They got bored? Why?"

Turning and pointing first to Sephiroth himself, and then to Karasuba, Akitsu elaborated

"... Glory hog..."

The sound of the oak doors being pushed off of the turks let Sephiroth and his team know that he fortunately didn't have to file any reports about "blue on blue" casualties. "Glad to see you're still with us Turk."

Reno for his part only seemed dusty, despite the door weighing nearly seventy pounds, and being thrown at him at presumably ballistic speeds.

"Glad to be with you general... But GODDAMN! What the hell was that at the end? I mean I know we pulled you into this for the firepower issue and all that... but seriously? How the hell?"

"Thats classified information Turk" a slightly amused look on his face at Reno's incredulous look.

Noticing for the first time that the general wasn't alone on this mission Reno got a good long look at both Karasuba, and Akitsu. And in the black uniforms that they were both in, and in Akitsu's case due to the elevation she was at. The lacey black undergarments she chose to go with it. "Damn general, who are the babes?"

Now openly smirking at the Turk Sephiroth replied. "Also classified."

Rufus, only now coming back to his senses after the unexpected tackle and explosion stood and dusted himself off. Looking to the SOLDIER general and his companions, "General, the timely rescue is most appreciated, but I would prefer if you could find a method of infiltration that

did not involve massive property damage, and if possible also avoids the damage of my suits." The smirk that crossed his face would eventually become an expression that he was famed for. It never quite reached a smile, but it implied his amusement at something. Turning to the pair of Turks. "I assume you are here to collect me then?"

Rude for the first time since Karasuba had seen him spoke up; his voice was a surprisingly a deep and rich baritone. He nodded his head and simply said. "Yes sir."

Reno however wasn't so reserved. Practically jumping over to the VIP, he was a natural opposite to Rude. "Thats right Mr. Shin-Ra, we are here to rescue you! If you'll kindly come with us, our boss has a few things to debrief you on." practically leading him out of the room by the arm, Reno headed out before the others.

Rubbing his neck sorely as he walked towards the elevator with his partner and the president's son inside Rude turned to the general. "Tseng should be downstairs we will be debriefing once he is done with the VIP, good work tonight, and thanks for the help."

********Scene Break********

With gunfire raining around him, Zack danced between the Shinobi he was fighting on the ground. The fact of the matter was that despite being heavily outnumbered, the shinobi couldn't take advantage of it. There were too many of them and they ended up getting in each others way with eleven people in the melee on the ground and more shooting into it from above, Zack was hardly safe, but he wasn't worried either.

With the elemental strike materia still active Zack blocked attacks from both sides; the unfortunate shinobi who caught his blade reacted in a manner similar to his unfortunate comrade earlier. Unfortunately for him Zack couldn't just kick him in the head and call it good. Here he had to finish his opponents off for good.

As the shinobi who struck his blade was still frozen in place Zack whipped his sword around in a manner similar to the attack typhoon materia, it lacked some of the power that the materia would have lent him, but with his blade sheathed in electricity it hardly mattered. Slashing the frozen guard deeply across the chest, and through the ribs, Zack briefly saw the trail his blade left in the air, arcs of electricity and static crackling menacingly over a trail of crimson blood.

Finishing his spin in a low three point crouch, the rookie 2nd class dodged four more strikes from the shinobi by activating his 'high jump' materia, bringing his blade down once again upon another shinobi, the result was similar to the others, his opponents attempt at blocking the strike with his blade caused it to shatter beneath the weight and power of the strike, and the broadsword in Zack's hands. Seeing three of their comrade's fall to the single trooper in less than the span of a minute, the Shinobi began to distance themselves from Zack. Three of the troopers began chanting.

_**Energia, pura e senza compromessi, purificare il peccato di coloro che di fronte a me. Thunder.**_

_**Cristallo, prisma, riflesso della vita, raffreddare l'aria, congelare il terreno, e fermare i malvagi. Ice.**_

As two of the enemies before him began the familiar chants for some offensive elemental magic, zack took advantage of his own ranged spell. He had on him, one of the "focused" materia that the SOLDIER labs were producing for missions now, the advantage of these materia was that it could be cast quickly, without a chant. Just a simple focus of will and the spell went off.

The downside was that they didnt grow. In order to get stronger spells the focused materia had to be combine with other materia, sacrificing both in the process. But he didnt care, his version let him cast faster than the Shinobi. Fast enough to intterupt at least one of them. That was when he heard one of the others chant something diffrent.

_**purificare le acque del fiume della vita, lavare via i danni del mondo. Cure**_

placing a hand on the open wound one of the troopers had suffered zack was able to see a cure spell about to go into action. The would would close almost instantly, the blood on his body reabsorbed. The only evidence he had been hurt at all, was the damage to his uniform.

'_great... they can get back up. Guess i need to hit em harder then.'_

But still, he had to choose the Shinobi that was casting thunder spells much like he was.

Ice could be dangerous, but if it hit the most he would suffer were some cuts, and a numbing sensation, slowing his movement, but still letting him move. Thunder on the other hand, would enervate him. Much like he had done to the two Shinobi. Lightning had a tendencie to cause temporary, but complete paralyses, in this situation that was a death sentence. Even the curative magic was a lesser threat.

Accepting the shards of frigid Ice piercing his body as a small consequence Zack focused on his own spell. He finished just in time; his spell went off faster than that of his opponent, stopping him from finishing the chant and completing his spell.

All of the Shinobi were stunned though. He had just cast thunder, chant-less and finished faster than one of their own had, mid chant no less. If any of them had doubts about what they were facing, they evaporated like so much mist before a bonfire.

The reckless impertinent youth who had stormed their tower and killed three of their men, and wounded a fourth, was a member of SOLDIER. A few of the troopers upstairs glanced to their fellows quickly before retreating from the third floor balcony.

Zack however felt his own confidence wavering. Sure he had only suffered minor injuries, and he did have his own cure materia on hand (which he planned on using extensively when the opportunity presented itself), but this room was NOT a good place to fight some seventeen armed and dangerous men.

'_Retreating dosen't count as a loss if I intend to keep fighting does it?'_

Zack couldn't help but worry. His pride as a member of SOLDIER was on the line, but he either needed a new strategy, or a MAJOR distraction.

********Scene Break********

Angeal felt like shit. Lying to his comrades and devious action, to him; were a MASSIVE satin on his honor, one that would never wash away, despite the intentions and the hopeful end result.

He had told Zack to handle the Shinobi inside the tower, while he and a group of EOD worked on disarming the bombs on the bridge. But he had never intended on disarming any of them.

The EOD did their jobs faithfully, like he should have been doing. But another purpose motivated the veteran 1st. His friend and sparring partner, Genesis, had gone missing over a month ago. Not long after that imposters started showing up, wearing his face and clothes.

It was VERY disturbing to say the least.

If Genesis had deserted of his own will, then Angeal was pretty sure of where he was. But if he just went and told the SOLDIER director or even Sephiroth of his suspicions, then the entire might of the Shin-Ra military complex would come crashing down on Genesis head.

No this was something he had to do alone. And to avoid looking like a traitor, or a deserter, Angeal had decided to 'fake' his own death. These bombs would make a perfect cover, all he had to do; was 'accidentally' set one off while trying to defuse it. The smoke from the explosion would allow him to escape down the ravine and away from prying eyes.

Initiating his plan from a low point on the tower, Angeal felt himself fortunate that the bomb he was looking at was of low quality, if he hadn't tampered with it, intending to use the explosion for himself, the bomb would have never exploded, the detonation device was malfunctioning.

So It came as a great surprise when the ignition signal caused the LED on the device to go from red to green, indicating it had received the detonation signal and was about to explode.

Un-prepared for the blast, Angeal took the full force of the detonation, the blast throwing him backwards and off of the cliff. Simultaneously twenty other explosions rang out across the area.

The terrorists had lost patience and set of the explosives. Zack had failed.

If it wasn't for the fact that Angeal was falling to his possibly very real demise, he would have worried briefly for his apprentice. Even that pup would find it hard to survive an explosion like that, and a stone tower collapsing on your head.

But the veteran had other concerns at the moment. Chief among them was landing, preferably not on his head.

******** Scene Break ********

The massive explosions that rocked the tower came as somewhat of a relief to the young SOLDIER. He had been hoping for a distraction, and when the rumbling started, and his opponents broke and ran, he gave a whooping cheer of joy. Their retreating counted as HIS win.

Then the shaking began to intensify, and rocks and broken pieces of wood began falling from the highest levels of the tower.

For a moment, Zack ignored it, basking in the afterglow of victory. But when the giant crystal orb in the dragon statues paws fell from its grip, and shattered on the floor not more than twenty feet from where he was. The young impetuous SOLDIER decided it was time to take his victory and leave…

Not even bothering with trying to find a door Zack sprinted for the nearest wall, with elemental strike still active on his blade, he hurled the heavy broadsword a the weakened wall, following it closely with a true lightning bolt.

The wall exploded in a shower of sparks and debris, activating his dash materia Zack pushed his body hard; in an effort to go faster than he ever had before in his life.

As he ran the tower began tilting backwards away from the bridge, the sound of metal cables snapping taut and stone falling into the ravine bellow hinted at the destruction he would find outside.

With the newly made hole within jumping distance Zack made a mighty leap to 'safety' only to find that the bridge he expected to land on had halfway collapsed. The EOD team had disarmed about half of the bombs, so instead of a clean sever; the bridge had one entire side dangling uselessly in the air. Seeing the bridge broken put a fear in the inexperienced SOLDIER he had never known before, his only chance was to grab onto one of the cables dangling below.

The cables swinging in the wind would be hard, but not impossible to grab, and Zack had always had an interesting kind of luck. So when he missed grabbing the first cable that was in reach, he panicked, but when the second cable wrapped itself around his outstretched arm, he could only smile.

Climbing up his cable to get a grip on the span wire, Zack knew he had to hurry, he may be out of danger from the fall, but he was hardly safe.

Once he managed to get back to the other side of the gap and onto the cliff where the rest of the army waited for him, he saw the EOD team, burnt and injured. His first words were of concern for his teacher, and friend.

"Where is Angeal?"

Only silence met his inquiry.

* * *

A/N: spell translations in order that they appear once again using google translator for the italian:

Energy, pure and uncompromised, purify the sins of those before me. Thunder.

Crystal prism, a reflection of life, cooling, freezing the ground, and bind the wicked. Ice.

Purifying waters from the river of life, wash away the harms of the world. Cure. )


	8. Chapter 5

********Chapter 5. ********

The mining town of Narshe seemed to be a magnet for trouble recently a scant few months ago the empire had launched a minor raid into the town with some of their magitech armors. The raid had ended unsuccessfully with the destruction of two of the armors and the dismantling of the third after the pilot was killed.

Much to the dismay of the townsfolk the witch riding in one of the armors had survived, and actually received medical aid. The fact that she was robbed of her will, and forced to do what she did never came to light.

Standing in the very home she had awoken from her slavery in, Terra found Narshe to be more bitterly cold than anyone could possibly imagine.  
After the empire raid on the Returners hideout, Bannon and Edgar had insisted that they make their way north back to Narshe. When the group reached the town she had feared the worst, the guards looked like they recognized her, and were calling for help.

With backup on the way, and a wanted woman in front of them, the guards had DEMANDED that she be turned over to their custody, so she could be either tried in Narshe for her 'crimes' or returned to the empire to pacify them.

Edgar had actually drawn his lance and attacked one of the guards at that.  
It took the combined efforts of the Mayor of Narshe, Bannon, Arvis (the man who had helped her after the slave crown was removed) and Terra herself to restrain the enraged king from slaughtering the hapless guard.

The promise he had made to her nearly a month ago still rang clear as a bell in her heart.  
"_...let me be clear about something: In no way will anyone in Figaro or any nation ever lay hand on you again as long as I have any say in it"  
_The fact that the king was willing to go to such lengths for her, when he barely knew her almost made her swoon, but the situation wouldn't allow for such girlish antics.

The fact of the matter was that even though her raid here as an imperial soldier ended in failure, the empire still had its eyes on the Esper in the mines. This was the reason and the drive for everyone meeting in Narshe.

When they had escaped on the Lethe River Both Locke, and Edgar's twin brother Sabin had been with them. an unfortunate battle with some of the empire's 'air-tech' armors resulted in both of them falling off and into the turbulent waters.

Bannon had decided to await the arrival of their companions before starting any planning. This put Terra in an uncomfortable position, here she was in a town that hated her, for good reason. And she was stuck there, with nothing but time and no way to fill it. The shops even turned the king away in disgust when she was around. It hurt her more than she let show.

The first to arrive days later was Sabin; Terra wasn't terribly surprised by this. To her, he looked like nothing more than a bodybuilder who had strayed from his gym. But the man showed an almost unnatural level of endurance, she was almost as intimidated by the prospect of his fist as he was of her magic. But Sabin aside from a few personality quirks was an outstanding individual, and one of the kindest people she had met so far.

She was very happy to see the shock of short cropped blond hair bouncing up the hills leading to the town proper. What she hadn't expected were the two companions he brought with him.

The taller of the two was an older gentleman easily into his forties, but he had the vitality and energy of someone half of his age, he was also almost as heavily muscled as Sabin himself was.

She noticed however that unlike her bodybuilder friend, the older man (whom she would later come to know as 'Cyan') wore a heavy suit of sapphire blue plate armor, and carried a large Katana at his side. he was a knight of Doma.

The other was a teenage boy, possibly 16 or 17, who alternated walking upright like his companions, frog hopping forward, or walking on all fours like a beast. His emerald green hair stood out more than her own, and the bright blue of his eyes could be seen from a good distance off. He was later introduced to Terra as 'Gau' Sabin claimed the boy was imitating the sound of a dog barking when he and Cyan had inquired about his name, and this was the closest either of them could come up with on their own for a real name.

The addition of the Doma'n knight to the group helped to ease the tensions around the town for most folks. But to Terra he only made it worse. When he told everyone about how Kefka had poisoned the kingdom during the siege, and how he had lost not only his king to the poison, but his wife and son as well, she had left the room in shame. It may not have been voluntary, but Terra HAD been a soldier in the empire.

Locke arrived almost a full day after Sabin, and much like the martial artist before him, he had brought a companion along with. Terra could swear she recognized the woman in white, it was there but she couldn't pull it from her mind. When she and the strange woman's eyes met, recognition flashed in her eyes. She knew Terra as well.

Before the question could be posed however the knight of Doma Interrupted, "Empire WITCH! I will have my revenge! HAVE AT THEE!"

Terra assumed the title of witch belonged to her and her alone. So when someone she had met only a day prior declared revenge on the 'witch' Terra nearly fainted. The whisper of steel being drawn came from two places, and both were remarkably different in tone.

From Cyan came a long steady relentless sound. From the woman came something else altogether. The sound of her blade being drawn was short, loud and had a ringing quality at the end of it, similar to a bell sounding, where Cyan's draw was even and constant. Hers was vicious and quick.

Both parties were about to clash blades inside of Arvis home. The quick intervention of not only Edgar, but Locke as well, startled everyone. Edgar simply barred Cyan's path with his lance. While Locke bodily stepped in front of his mysterious companion.

Ever the diplomat Edgar turned to the knight, "Peace Cyan, at least for now, Locke must have a DAMN good reason for bringing HER here." Turning to look at his friend and waiting for his reply the king held his lance steady until the knight relented.

Exhaling a sigh of relief, Locke cast a thankful look to his royal friend. "Yeah i got a pretty good reason Edgar. As I'm sure you are all aware, this is Celes Chere. General Celes Chere of imperial fame."

As he so blithely introduced the woman with all of her horrific past, Cyan began growling like a beast. "I am well aware of who this wretch is. If you have reason to stay my blade be on with it, my patience grows thin."

Locke back pedaling a step holding up his hands in a placating manner. "I'm getting there, I'm getting there... as I was saying this is Celes Chere, of imperial fame... and FORMER general to the empire."

Edgar seemed to be loosing his patience with the thief as well, the look he was sending could scare a raging behemoth. "...Locke, I understand we have a history, and that I would normally trust you almost implicitly, but this is pushing it..."

Locke looking to the woman with an apologetic expression gave the group the whole story. "Edgar, when I found her she was in a dungeon in south Figaro, chained to a wall and being beaten by her own troops..."

"Any idea why?" Edgar softening his stance slightly began to make the connections; he knew that Locke's past had some trauma related to not being able to protect a loved one, so he had developed a bit of an obsession when it came to protecting women.

Looking to Celes for help, the entirety of what the thief got was an icy look of disinterest. But she did speak up to clarify something "Those weren't MY troops, they were Kefka's." speaking in a hushed tone so low that only Terra and Locke caught exactly what she said Celes continued. "They accused me of treason due to the fact that I refused to poison the water supply for Figaro; I refused a direct order from the emperor, and was to be executed for it."

The silence that followed was deafening. Even Locke hadn't heard that much yet. Cyan however wasn't convinced, it was all too convenient. HIS home HAD been poisoned by Kefka after all, and here before him was one of the three people who worked closest with the mad man. "LIES~! Thou art nothing more than an imperial dog! Leading the empire here as we speak!"

"Fine, I was going to repay the debt of honor I owe to Locke for saving my life. But I can see that my assistance and knowledge of the imperial forces won't be needed here. Not with such _brilliant _tactical minds like yours around good knight. Good luck."

Turning to leave the building, she wrapped her cloak tight around her body as she stepped outside, only to notice she wasn't alone. Terra, who hadn't had a chance to speak since Locke and his female companion entered the home, had followed her outside.  
"Please wait!"

Turning to see who had followed her, Celes cast a baleful glare behind her, only for the look to soften when she caught sight of Terra. "Why did you follow me Terra?"

"I haven't had the chance to tell you my name yet… you DO know me don't you?" Stepping forward into the bitter cold Terra approached the former general cautiously.

"You don't remember do you? ... Of course, Kefka's slave crowns…" The General's look had continued to soften considerably, going from the neutral she gave to Locke and everyone else, to an almost motherly look as she considered Terra. "Yes I know you, and you know me…"

A pleading desperate look in her eyes Terra tried to convince the woman to stay. "Celes please I know that you and the others got off on the wrong foot, but we need your help. _**I **_need your help."

Shaking her head sadly the general turned to continue walking out of town. "I am sorry Terra, eventually everything will come back to you, and I am sure, you wont like it… or me. Please don't follow me; there is nothing I can do for you now."

Turning back inside terra gently shut the door behind her, the others gathered in the house all gave her expectant looks wanting to know what was going on, sobbing softly for reasons she didn't quite understand Terra managed to squeak out a soft "she's gone."

The reactions around the room were mixed; Edgar looked crestfallen at the loss of a potentially MAJOR ally in the fight against the empire. Locke looked similarly down, but for significantly different reasons. Bannon shared in Edgar's perspective. Gau… was unaffected.

Cyan had the most noticeable reation of the group. Relief "Hmpf, finally now that the imperial taint is gone we can be about our business."

Terra still leaning against the closed door gently reminded everyone in the room. "I was an imperial too, remember Locke?"

The proud knight of Doma found himself at a loss for words, and a silence descended over the room. After nearly a minute went by, a gentle knocking came at the door. Terra still leaning on it turned and opened it. Standing there was Celes. Waving in an unusually happy manner the general gave Terra a tight smile… "Terra, tell the others its time to go… we are out of time. Kefka is here. And he brought his army…"

The battle in the hills north of the mining town of Narshe was horrific. Nearly 200 soldiers lead by a squad of imperial 'hell riders' made the raid, but the terrain played in the defenders favor. The hills were full of rocky crags, and jagged cliffs that presented bottlenecks and impasses.

With the defenders being familiar with the surroundings, they were able to put soldiers on top of those crags, and shoot from relative safety.

It was nearly a full day of battle, the snow had been stained a bloody crimson, and was beginning to flow, melting from the heat of the combat, turning the battlefield into a quagmire of death.

Somehow by the days end, Edgar, Terra Celes, and Locke and the rest of their friends had managed to overcome the odds and beat back the imperial troops. They even managed to drive Kefka off.

But when Terra and Celes approached the frozen Esper set upon the most northern cliffs, an ominous feeling filled the air.  
Edgar and Locke both concerned about the girls tried to approach, but a sparks of static striking the ground in front of them kept both of the men away.

Terra slowly reached out her hand, and touched the tomb of the Esper, Celes did so at the same time. Sharing a look between them, the girls both understood something significant. The Esper frozen for more than 1000 years was very much alive.

Celes could feel him in her mind, itching, scratching, trying to do or say something, but falling short. Throwing herself back and away from the frozen creature to break the contact, She looked to where Terra stood, still in contact with the Esper. And knew something bad was about to happen. She was aware of Terra's nature after all.

With Terra however, the Esper could speak clearly. But he found something in her that even she didn't know about, when the Esper touched that part of her mind, something came free. Power pure and unbridled, something she had never known before in her life. As the power began coursing through her it brought a physical change as well. Fire pink in hue and bright as the sun began covering her flesh transforming the girl, when the fires died down the color remained. Her body transformed and remade, soft pink fur covered her from head to toe, a set of talon's adorned both hands and feet replacing the soft elegant fingers, and her once long mint green hair was now a mane of wild pink and purple, moving almost as it were alive in its own right.

But as the power came free so did something else. Her memories.

Visions of the torture that Kefka had subjected her to, the experiments, and the murders committed in his name, all of the atrocities over the course of years came flooding back in seconds.

The good memories were there as well, of the care and support she received from Celes and Leo as she was growing up, all the good times. It was all there, but the bad tends to outweigh the good, and her life had been awash with tragedy. It was too much.

In a burst of screaming pain, and power, Terra shattered the cliff she was standing upon, dropping her and the frozen Esper into the depths of the canyon.

Moments later she was flying back into the sky, driven mad by the memories and looking for a refuge from the hurt.

********Chapter 5 εуλ 1996 ********

The war with Wutai had ended nearly two years ago, but there were still remnants of insurgent troops; to Zack Fair it seemed they were nearly everywhere, after the desertion of Genesis and the accidental demise of Angeal SOLDIER had been in a precarious position. two of its best operatives were gone, Zack was promoted to SOLDIER 1st class as a consequence to try and maintain the power balance.

But the vast number of 2nd and 3rd classes that had deserted with Genesis left the organization severely depleted and under staffed. Zack had been worked nearly to death over the last year.

'Copies' of Genesis were showing up all over the globe, generally causing damage to major Shin-Ra installations, or trying to steal new MBI tech. And the newly promoted first was sent to deal with them where ever they showed up.

AVALANCH had also been significantly more active, last month while Zack was on another mission, Hojo had some Top secret data pertaining to SOLDIER transported from Nibelhime, back to Midgar, one of his aide's and an escort of 2nd classes were supposed to make the trip quietly and quickly. But and ambush by AVALANCH lead by their combat leader 'Elfe' left the transport team wounded, and the vehicle they were in stranded. The SOLDIER operatives had prioritized saving the Aide's life over the retention of the data. Hojo had blown a proverbial gasket over that one…

And as a result, Fuhito the scientist Co-leader of AVALANCH was able to produce a new type of fighter for the terrorist cell. "Ravens" These so called Ravens were nearly as tough as a 1st class soldiers, and just as fast. In addition they could almost instantly heal from nearly anything.

But the process they went through broke them. Unlike every member of SOLDIER who still retained their individuality, and the ability to think on their own, the Ravens were essentially human machines designed to kill, and follow orders nothing more.

This development had naturally called for Zack, and Sephiroth's attention as well as the rest of the department. And it occupied a good portion of it. The Turks had actually been called in to support SOLDIER operations when Wutai, Genesis copies, or AVALANCH forces were involved.

On one such mission Zack found himself in Junon marveling over the aesthetic and structural changes that MBI had been enacting over the city, he couldn't help but compare it to the first time he had been there, on his trip from Gongagga to Midgar. He distinctly remembered the 'tiered' layout of the city, similar to how a staircase looked, set into the cliffs behind the city

Now however, the city more resembled Midgar, the MASSIVE cannon that Scarlet and Heddigar had been constructing had been disassembled, and the materials were used in the renovation of the city.

There was now a distinct, 'upper' and 'lower' city. But unlike Midgar, the 'lower' city wasn't obstructed by a giant plate over the citizen's heads. The 'upper' city, actually extended out over the ocean, Nearly1000 yards out over the water.

The port of Junon was however obstructed by the plate, but the city was overall cleaner, and more prosperous than Midgar had been in this stage of its development. The tower MBI had built for itself sat right on the border between the upper and lower city, symbolizing the companies aid in 'elevating' humanity. The public access elevator built into the side of the tower was a token of humor on the part of the MBI director.

The reason Zack found himself in Junon was the sighting of not only a Genesis copy and some of his twisted subordinate troops; but also 3 ravens, and a squad of Wutai Shinobi all in the same day, he honestly felt a little out of his depth. The Turks accompanying Zack were to occupy both the Genesis copy's troops and the Shinobi. But the copy himself, and the ravens were all for Zack to handle on his own.

It appeared the copy in question was one of the stronger Genesis impersonator's, not only was it equipped with an SMG for ranged combat, it also had a duplicate of Genesis unique personal blade, the "Rapier"

The one piece of good news, was that for as much as the copy seemed to want all Shin-Ra tech and personnel broken or dead, it appeared to want the Ravens dead just as much, if not more.

The Raven's were all equipped in a mockery of the SOLDIER outfit. Face obscuring helmets, purple uniforms, and a long single edged blade, VERY similar to a katana, but the shape was off. It was too long, and the curvature of the blade was to shallow. The point of the blade also ended in the angular cut of a 'tanto' style knife rather than the graceful sweep to the point of a normal katana.

The sounds of battle could be heard coming from the rooftops of the upper city. The occasional bout of sparks coming from clashing blades between the ravens and the copy as well as the hail of gunfire he unleashed were good indicators of where they all were.

Before he charged off to engage in the fight he went through a small ritual that Angeal had imparted to him before he disappeared.

"… _Know your limits Zack, don't go rushing into battle expecting you have the same equipment as you did yesterday…" _

Zack did as his mentor said to, pulling his blade in front of his face in a salute,touching his forehead to the blade he mentally went over what he had on him. _'High jump, Thundaga twister, darkness, poison attack, elemental attack, and Quakeaga. As well as 5 Hi-potions, and 2 Elixer.'_

This time, Zack was READY for the rumble, after holding his salute for a moment in memory of his fallen mentor Zack Jumped up to join the fray.

********Scene Break ********

Mutsu Sekirei 05, master of tactics, Swordsman almost on par with Miya and Karasuba, and Earth elemental manipulater, babysitter. He swore VEHMENTLY that Minaka and Takami conspired to pull him from his position on Miya's disciplinary squad to his current responsibility of babysitting, just to humiliate him.

His current charges, Kaho #87, her litter sister Musubi #88, Kusano #108, and finally the oddball, Aerith, A girl that Miya had picked up in a hospital after Yume had died in a botched rescue mission, were currently in a ramshackle little church building underneath the Junon plate. Very near the harbor.

Aerith swore she could smell flowers down here, and wanted to help them grow, Musubi and Kaho had grown attached to the girl once they came back to Junon so naturally they came along. And Kusano with her natural green thumb wouldn't be denied the chance to help her 'oneechans' in the garden.

After the incident where Musubi and Kaho were kidnapped Mutsu agreed with the assessment that Junon needed better security. But his idea of it had been a total military lockdown not him playing babysitter to four girls playing in the dirt. Both Miya and Minaka still REFUSED to tell Mutsu what happened to Yume to on that mission, but he swore he would find out eventually.

Putting his humiliation at the situation aside for now, Mutsu noticed that something was going on today; he could hear the sounds of gunfire and clashing swords on the upper plate. It was making him twitchy.

******** Scene Break ********

Zack Landed nearly on top of one of the Raven's, his high jump material having missed annoyed him greatly.

"HEY! Hold still! You aren't allowed to dodge!"

The battle had turned into a three way brawl quickly, with the Genesis copy taking opportunities to attack him and the ravens whenever the opportunity presented itself.

After dodging Zack the Raven found itself looking down the smoking barrel of the copy's SMG. A quick burst on full auto put 15 rounds of mako powered death into the Raven's face.

Causing Further annoyance to Zack. "HEY! He was mine DAMMIT!"

As the raven fell; the copy turned the gun on Zack, firing another burst at the SOLDIER not caring one bit if he hit or not. Simultaneously he brought his sword around and beheaded the fallen Raven, causing a wound he COULDN'T regenerate from.

The other Two Ravens were still in the fight however. And one took the opening the death of its comrade had caused to attack. A quick thrust impaled the Genesis copy through the back just below the lowest ribs. A look of peace crossed his face as the copy expired, his body dissolving into mako sparks before everyone's eyes.

This left just Zack and the two ravens locked in the dance of death on the rooftops of Junon.

As the pair closed on Zack to attack him, he activated his High jump once more. Dodging and attacking at the same time. His target was still faster than he was used to however, and managed to roll out of the way of the lethal blow before it stuck home. Open to the second Raven Zack received a slash across his back from shoulder to hip, deep enough to expose bone.

"~SHIT~! THAT HURTS!"

Jumping backwards before he could receive another hit, Zack reached into his belt and pulled one of the 'Elixer' potions out of its pouch, they were small, and only about 2 oz, but they could cure even the most grievous of wounds almost instantly. And with both vertebrae and ribs exposed on his back, and the muscle flayed to uselessness Zack figured this was a good time to use the rare potion.

Done with the potion before he hit the ground Zack winced as he felt the muscles of his back stretch and reunite themselves together, it felt like there was a colony of ants under his skin.

Once he had his footing again Zack saw that both Raven's were already charging him, looking to make a quick kill out of the young 1st. Grinning at the challenge Zack threw the Elixer container at one of them and motioned the other in a taunting 'bring it on' manner.

Once the pair drew close enough Zack activated the "Darkenss" materia. He honestly didn't like using it, using it hurt. But the results were almost ALWAYS worth the effort and pain.

A wave of energy, nearly 10 yards across erupted from Zack; it was a crimson red, mixed with a black inky gloss. That looked to boil away anything in its path.

The Raven's entered the blast, unable to protect themselves from it, and Zack 'felt' his spell connect with them, it wouldn't be a lethal hit. Not on a raven, but it was a DAMN good hit never the less.

Before the blackness and death had a chance to clear, Zack popped a Hi-potion and felt the pain of the casting dissipate.

Moving quickly from his casting, Zack tried to behead the first of his targets. He felt the SOLDIER issued broadsword connect with the flesh of his opponent, and slide through. Not as easily as he would prefer, it seemed the stress of combat was affecting the edge, but it worked.

Once the smoke cleared Zack saw what he had hit. He had missed his intended target; instead of the Raven's neck, like he had been aiming for, he caught him under the armpit, and exited out the other shoulder.

It was a 'fatal' wound to the raven but not nearly as clean as he would have liked.

Turning to regard the second raven, Zack saw something horrifying; a small button controller was in his hand. The wire connected to it looked to run straight into his wrist. A small beeping noise could be heard from him as well. Looking down Zack saw there was something inside of the Raven at his feet. Under his uniform, torn loose by Zack's attack was a bomb. And it looked to be about to detonate.

********Scene Break ********

Reno, Rude, Tseng, Cissne and Emma, as well as a large number of their compatriots were all in Junon in support of the SOLDIER operations going on here. Zack Fair was to eliminate the 'high threat' targets, while the Turks focused on the regular infantry the copy brought with him, and the Wutai spies as well, tough no doubt, but not impossible.

The Wutai spies had made straight for the underwater mako reactor. Shin-Ra had built it and now MBI had it providing power to the city. If they managed to blow THAT up it would be catastrophic. The damage to the local ecology would be incalculable. Fortunately Tseng saw this coming, and had a squad posted at the entrance, with ordinance and assault rifles filling the hallway. He was VERY pleased to see that Yume was the only person able to avoid this trick.

With the spies and saboteurs from Wutai dealt with the only thing left to deal with was the infantry running amok in the rest of the city. his subordinates had been asigned to take care of it already, and with Reno, Rude, Cissne, and Emma leading them the infantry would be cleaned up shortly.

********Scene Break ********

Junon had changed A LOT in the Decade since MBI had taken over, Reno wans't quite sure he approved… ok, so the city was clean, that was good and all but the layout was SOO confusing now.

And yes they did have AMAZING restaurants, but they were over priced and WAY to fancy for Reno to bother with.

And while he had seen a good number of bars, taverns, micro breweries, pubs, and ale houses around, he was on duty, and couldn't stop to examine them more closely… but you had better believe once the last of these damned stupid copy soldiers was down, so was a pint of something fizzy. Or foamy, it was really all the same in the end.

As it was, he and Rude were about to close on one of the last groups in the area, Emma and Cissne were herding them towards the guys. Who in turn were ready to spring the trap, Quick clean and efficient. Just the way Rude loved his operations. Reno however was looking forward to the brawl; the chaos and unpredictability were where he thrived.

He had a standard issue sidearm that all of the Turks HAD to have on them. But he sucked with it. But he had his trusty mag-rod. Equipped with a couple of pieces of materia, this was his combat preference, get in close and dirty. Make damn well SURE that what you put down is really down.

His train of thought was broken by his partner's deep baritone voice. "Reno Here they come."

"Yeah yeah I'm ready, just chill." Cracking his neck, and flexing his shoulders in preparation Reno had a sloppy grin on his face. "So Rude, you up for a little 'walkabout' of the new Junon nightlife after we get done here?"

"…" the infantry rounding the corner now, his partner didn't even bother to respond. He knew it was futile, once Reno was set on course nothing could dissuade him, short of a direct order from Tseng or Veld.

"Tch… Your no fun anymore Rude, c'mon man you've gotta loosen up a little!"

As he chided his friend and partner in crime Reno leapt at the first of the troopers coming into the alleyway. Striking him on the helmet hard in an over handed swing, the electricity on his rod crackling to life, and rendering the unfortunate soldier unconscious from both the impact, and the electricity.

Rude not to be left out, slid forward in a low crouch, making it look as if he hadn't taken a single step, he kept his body low, and closed on the second infantryman far quicker than anyone his size and in that expensive of a suit had any right to. Once he was in striking range of the troop, Rude quickly struck his opponent in the face with an elbow, making him reel backwards from the impact.

As his opponent was trying to back off, Rude grappled him, grabbing his head with both hands, interlocking his fingers behind his helmet. He dragged the helmeted figures head down, and at the same time, jumped and drove his knee first into the soldier's abdomen, then into the visor protected helmet. Repeatedly, after four strikes in rapid succession the sound of the metal helmet failing resounded through the alley.

*CRACK*

One more knee to the face and a twist of the neck for good measure, and Rude dropped the now limp and lifeless body to the ground.  
The sound of a heavy caliber pistol barking out and the flash of a shuriken let the pair know that the girls had their backs covered.

"So Reno… about that beer… your treat?" Rude casually asked while dusting himself off from the quick melee and adjusting his shades, nonchalantly giving in to Reno, at least on the condition that the excitable red-head paid.

"Sure, pretty sure I still owe ya a couple of rounds from when we were up in Icicle anyways"

Smiling at his victory Reno turned and headed in the direction of one of the bars he had seen earlier. In the one that Reno had noticed an amazing raven haired beauty was sitting up at the bar and had caught his eye, here was to hoping that Junon would be kind to the amorous pursuits of the ace Turk, and his stoic wingman.

********Scene Break ********

The second Raven with the control in his hand gave the SOLDIER one last look before pressing the button and looking to the sky. A moment of silence filled the roof. Even the machinery around seemed to know what was about to happen and was bracing.

The moment of frozen time passed FAR far too quickly for anyone to react to.

The explosion Hurled Zack from the roof, and across the city, unfortunately for him, it threw him back the way he had come from. Over the edge of the plate towards lower Junon, a fifty story drop.

As he fell Zack couldn't help but notice a pattern here. Two 1st class SOLDIER operatives, caught by unexpected explosions, and thrown from REALLY high edges to their deaths…

"Well this sucks"

Zack always did have a peculiar kind of luck however. Even HE was surprised when a white linen sheet came out of thin air encircled him and prevented his fall.

When he finally stopped bouncing, and having his minor heart attack, Zack bore witness to a magnificent sight, the cloth that had saved his life was wrapped around not only himself, but five or six lengths of similar cloth, all wrapping around the struts and supports of the plate, and some even coming from the nearby buildings.

And lowering herself down to look Zack in the eye, was by his description later, a goddess made flesh, long flowing brown hair, bound in a ponytail on one side. A pair of wide fearfull eyes looking to make sure that Zack was alright, and an absolutely DIVINE figure.

The outfit she was wearing seemed to be more of the same white linen that he was currently resting in, but unlike the expansive sheet holding him. The cloth binding her chest could not be described as expansive, nor did it leave much to the imagination. A short skirt and a pair of tall boots completed her ensemble.

As she came down to eye level Zack saw that she had a VERY obvious blush going on.  
'_Must be the outfit; if I was a chick id be embarrassed to go outside like that too.'_

Little did Zack know that the goddess in front of him had been watching his fight with the copy and the Raven's, and had come to the conclusion that Zack Fair SOLDIER 1st class was her destined one. "I found you… my Ashikabi."

Utterly confused, and still a bit winded from the fall Zack could only gasp. "Ashi-whut?"

Pulling herself close she placed her hands on both sides of the still stunned SOLDIER's face. She pulled him close, and kissed him deeply, passionately.  
The stunned SOLDIER found his eyes open wide in surprise as the beauty before him explored the depths of his mouth, thinking to himself somewhat embarrassed.

'_Damn didn't brush after breakfast, probably still tastes like bacon… ew, but who would have seen THIS coming~~?!'_

His train of thought was utterly derailed at the sight of a pair of luminescent white wings spreading from her back. Very much reminiscent of large feathers of cloth, the girl finally broke off the kiss with a sigh. "Number 10 Uzume, The Veils of fate will hold no secrets from you forever and ever my Ashikabi"

Zack could only sit there confused in the white linen sheet suspended more than four hundred feet in the air.

"wha?"

********Scene Break ********

Mutsu heard the explosion, and he was ready for anything, his sword while still in its sheath as to not scare his charges, was in his hands for easy access. He COULDN'T afford to be caught un-aware not now. Not when Miya, and the director had tasked HIM with keeping the little ones safe.

Yet here they were, exposed, away from the high walls and deep rooms that MBI had prepared for just such an emergency.

And as he stood there panicking the girls were planting flowers, without a care in the world.

Oh how he hated his life sometimes.

Aerith was happy, she had been sad for months after she had to leave her mother, but, after spending time with her new 'sisters' and Miya, she had learned to put her sadness to the back of her mind. There was sooo much more to live for than just her unhappiness. Plus, she KNEW that her mother was still alive.

The planet had told her as much. She was far away, and still in pain. But she was alive, so there was still a chance she would see her again. She spoke fairly regularly with the planet itself, and the souls of the recently departed.

Sometimes they warned her of danger. Sometimes they helped her see something she missed; other times they simply lit her way. The planet was alive, and it was her friend.

And right now, it was telling her something was about to fall through the roof of her church and onto Musubi, if Aerith didn't get her to move.

********Scene Break********

Zack was content. Sitting in the linen hammock over four hundred feet in the air, after having just gotten out of a rather intense make out session with one of the hottest women he had ever laid eyes on. Sure he was confused as hell. But he was also content... for the moment.

Still, he was technically 'on the clock' and there was business to finish up on the upper levels of the city. "Hey um… Uzume? Can we get down from here? I've got some business that I need to attend to on the plate."

"OH!" Uzume looked surprised when Zack spoke up; she was still lost in the moment, and the euphoria of her winging. _'The adjustors had said it would be "pleasant" but damn! That was too much!' _

Looking around Uzume spotted a small church down below on the ground level. Down was ALWAYS easier than up, especially with a passenger. She smiled a bit wider as the prospect of having to lower herself and her muscular new Ashikabi to the ground. "Hang onto me; I can get us down in just a second."

Zack didn't think twice, this beautiful woman had not only been kissing him rather deeply, but was now offering for him to get as physically close as he could? GOOD DAY!

Once he was wrapped around the petite brunette she did something he wasn't expecting, sure he had subconsciously wondered where the hell the sheet he had been lying on had come from. But his luck had always been kind of funny.

So he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. Accept and move on, that had been his motto for situations like this in the past, it had served him well. No need to dig into deep scientific explanations, or religious connotations. Just accept and move on.

But when the sheets began to spontaneously detach from their anchoring, untying knots, and tying themselves together, gently lowering them to the rooftop below, even Zack was dumbfounded and looking for answers.

Uzume saw the look of confusion on her beloved ones face, and knew she had some explaining to do. But before that, Uzume realized something embarassing. "ummm… I think I forgot to ask your name…"

Turning his head to get a better look at the brunette Zack found his face in a rather delicate situation… _'So this is the "marshmallow hell" I keep hearing about in all those comics… not bad… not bad at all, kinda hard to breathe though…' _he knew if he tried to talk right now it wouldn't end well. She would either scream or drop him, neither were good options at the moment, so he loosened his grip, just enough to lean back and speak without a mouthful of boob.

"Zack, Zack Fair, SOLDIER 1st class, at your service and apparent mercy."

Laughing lightly at her Ashikabi's antics, "I know I already said it, but I'm Uzume, Sekirei Number 10, yours now and forever." A loving look in her eyes as she said it, Uzume tightened her hold on him as she discreetly tried to pull Zack back to her chest, she didn't mind him being there after all she was his "wife" now…

"Yeah once we get down mind explaining that bit?" Zack got one last bit in before he allowed Uzume to return him safely to her embrace.

"Of course, there is a lot more than that to explain after all."

Zack and Uzume landed lightly on the church roof with a soft *thump* untying and allowing a vast majority of the cloth to simply disappear Uzume stepped back from Zack, mainly so she could get a better look at him. He had felt AMAZING holding her like that, and her eyes told her the same thing. For her to have him as an Ashikabi, she was a lucky lucky girl.

Zack felt the same way about the situation, but he was in the dark about what a sekirei was, and as he stepped back to begin his ritualistic pacing Zack felt the roof groan and buckled under his weight. It collapsed before either he or Uzume could do anything. Zack fell, straight onto his back, in a bed of flowers. "…owww…"

Looking around Zack saw four young girls nearby and Uzume looking through the hole above.

"ZACK! Are you ok?"

"Fine… just peachy, three stories is a lot better than forty, so yea I'm good." Giving Uzume thumbs up from where he lay, and then closing his eyes to massage the new headache between them. Zack noticed a rather large man approaching him, well he heard and assumed the footsteps belonged to a man; he REALLY hopped none of the girls he briefly noticed before were that heavy.

Opening his eyes and looking for the newcomer, Zack performed a 'kip-up' to get to his feet and began regarding the stranger carefully, he was nearly as tall as his boss. In fact the more Zack looked the more similarities he noticed, like the fact that they both had stark silver hair.

While Sephiroth's was nearly knee length this guy kept it cropped short.

But again in similarity to the General, they both wore black chest barring outfits with too many belts. But unlike the general, this guys coat was business length instead of dramatic-cape-waving-in-the-wind length.

And also in similarity with the genius SOLDIER, was the weapon of choice. Both were technically in the 'katana' family, but Sephiroth used one that was so outrageous only he could wield it properly. This guy used something more reasonable, a single edged straight bladed ninjato. It would be WICKED fast in close combat.

The stranger took one look in Zack's Mako blue eyes, and drew his blade. "Mutsu number 05, Shin-Ra dogs you will not have these girls."

Declaring his intent, Mutsu began attacking Zack Relentlessly.  
The only thing that saved Zack from an untimely and early grave was the fact the Mutsu had taken the time to declare his name and moniker, giving Zack the split second necessary to grad his own blade.

The SOLDIER broadsword was in rough shape, after having fought two ravens, a Genssis copy and survived an interrupted forty story fall caused by an explosion, the blade was in serious need of some repair. So it didn't surprise Zack when the ninjato his opponent was using began to chip and crack his blade.

Knowing that the majority of his offensive materia relied heavily upon his balde to work, Zack's only REAL options for offense were his "Quakeaga" materia, and the "Darkness" he was so loathe to use. And inside this crappy old building neither was much of an option at all… especially with four little girls standing nearby.

Dodging Mutsu's attacks, Zack jumped to the back wall of the church, and used the wall to ricochet himself up and over the heads of not only Mutsu, but the girls inside as well.

Once he was past the threat, Zack bolted for the doors to the outside, where he could make effective use of his options. Ignoring Uzume's Cries he ran out the doors, and turned to face the swordsman who was slowly coming out after him.

Zack was mentally cursing his opponent's cautious approach, someone as reckless as he himself was, or even as single-minded as the Ravens had proven to be earlier would have been easier to fight, especially with Zack's limited options. _'C'mon Dammit, I don't have time for the damn dramatic slow walk. You're intimidating I get it, now get out here so I can kick your ass.'_

Once Mutsu reached the door to the Church, he pulled a move similar to what Zack had done. He jumped, straight over Zack's head. And as he landed he muttered a single phrase

"…Smashing point…."

As the butt of his empty ninjato sheath touched the ground Zack felt something SERIOUSLY wrong; the ground was moving as if a MAJOR earth type spell had just been cast. But there was no flare of mako, no chant. NOTHING.

'_Well shit… guess I know what it feels like to face an opponent with a superior grasp of magic now don't I? Those poor shinobi…'_

As Zack finished his thought, the ground absolutely exploded. Rings of destruction radiated out from the swordsman, shattering the ground and creating a crater that went right up to the church but not into it…

As the tremors intensified, and Zack lost his footing, he found the pointy end of Mutsu's ninjato at his throat.  
"I yield I yield, Crap dude what did I do?" Zack let his sword drop from his grasp and set his hands above his head in a pose of surrender.

'_GODDAMIT! Angeal is gonna kill me! I lost… NOBODY MUST KNOW!'_

"You are Shin-Ra, which is enough. Die." As Mutsu gave his reasoning, and drew his arm back for the fatal thrust, a sheet of white cloth surrounded, and bound his arm, preventing the blow from falling.

"MUTSU! THAT'S ENOUGH!" Uzume for the second time in the span of an hour looked to Zack, as a goddess might, and if it weren't for the fact that he was on his back, he would have paid worship to her. "Zack is my Ashikabi, we aren't here for Musubi, or the others Mutsu it was a coincidence that he fell. Let him up"

Begrudgingly Mutsu lowered and sheathed his sword. "It appears I have judged the situation too quickly. My apologies." Bowing his head slightly as he said this, Mutsu disregarded Zack, and headed back towards the Church where his charges were at. All four were in the door watching the brawl with wide eyes.

An absent minded wave of his hand, saw the damage he had caused with his 'spell' to smooth and repair, making the ground look like nothing more than a sinkhole had formed. Without turning or even glancing to his rear, Mutsu summoned Uzume like she was a petulant little sister.

"Uzume, please come with me, there are matters we need to discuss..."


	9. Chapter 6

Terra was terrified; Sure Celes, Edgar, and the ninja 'Shadow' were by her side, but here she was looking out over the bastion of power the emperor Gesthal, and the mad man Kefkan had created; a continent of their making, FLOATING in the air above the city of Albrook.

Even with her re-discovered history and the newfound powers that it brought with it. The sheer amount of magic that the emperor and Kefka were using was staggering. She could feel the magic pulsing through the air, giving everything around her a corona of color, a visible flare of the ever present energy in the air so densely concentrated on the floating island.

Not only was the air around them absolutely saturated, but all the magic in the air seemed to be ORIGINATING from a source nearby…

The emperor and his mad mage could bee seen on an overlook higher on the island. The shadow of three statues could also be seen with them.

********Chapter 6 ********

Mutsu was quiet at the best of times, at other times, like now, he was downright emotionless. Uzume hated that quality in the man; it made empathetic conversation nearly impossible. When he had called her over she could FEEL the rage smoldering just under the surface. His tightly controlled mask reining it in before he could hurt anyone.

But now? Now that they were inside the church, and he had a chance to sit down, think about what had happened and control himself, he was as hard to read as a statue.

"Uzume, please tell me, what got into your head that made you think it was a good idea to let a member of Shin-Ra wing you."

Uzume felt like she was back in the MBI schools, sitting in front of her instructors, trying to explaining why she was picking on Hikari and Hibiki. "Well… do you want the whole story? Or the abridged version?"

Mutsu lacing his fingers together and resting his chin on his knuckles said flatly. "The whole story."

Sighing lightly Uzume dove into her tale. "Well, I was in my room in the MBI tower, I've got a great view of the whole city from there ya know? Anyways, I was in my room just killing time, when I see a Shin-Ra helicopter fly low over the city, naturally it got me curious. The helicopter made three stops, and I was close to the third, so I decided to go have a look for myself."

Shrugging nonchalantly Uzume continued her tale. "Only one person got off the helicopter, Zack, I felt myself react to him as soon as I saw him. But like you said, he was Shin-Ra so just walking up to him and explaining everything and getting my wings was out of the question. So I followed him instead, he paused in what looked like meditation for a second before jumping almost straight up to the plate, he only needed 3 handholds to make it up. He was almost as fast as I expect you would have been."

Mutsu slightly indignant at having been compared to the Shin-Ra dog snorted derisively. "Humph, not likely."

Rolling her eyes at the immaturity of her "elder" sibling Uzume pressed on. Anyways… It looked like he was here for a reason, and knew where he was going. And like I said, I was following him, trying not to be seen, wasn't hard what he was headed for was a fight. It looked completely one sided before he showed up, some guy in a red coat fighting 3 helmeted guys in black."

Mutsu's eyebrow quirked at that. "Recognize any of them?"

Shaking her head no, Uzume continued explaining the situation. "No unfortunately, Zack probably did though. Speaking of which, could we get him in here… I just found him, being separated like this sucks."

The sound of a helicopter could be heard in the background ignoring it and shaking his head Mutsu denied Uzume her request. "No Uzume, stay on topic, Zack knew these guys were fighting, and rushed to join the fight?"

Nodding her head in affirmation. "Yeah at least that's what it looked like, when he joined the fight, he seemed to be working alongside the guy in red, but it looked like he got angry when the coat guy killed one of the others, then the guy in red shot at Zack, I've never seen someone deflect bullets with a sword before. but when the coat guy died, Zack barely showed anything."

His mood beginning to darken as he listened to her story, anger could be heard in the voice of Mutsu now. "Uzume the more you describe the situation, the more I think that this "Zack" is nothing but a sociopath who would think noting of turning you over to the scientists or someone like them."

Cringing as she realized the story she was telling wasn't painting the best picture of her beloved Uzume tried to placate Mutsu. "Waitwaitwaitwait! I know it's not exactly the best story, but when the last guy in black BLEW HIMSELF UP! I just couldn't stand there anymore. Zack was falling and my body reacted on its own, before I knew what was going on I had caught him, and was kissing him winging myself!"

"So he DIDN'T force you then?" Mutsu was genuinely shocked and more amused than he would let on at the prospect that Uzume had forced HERSELF on the Shin-Ra operative.

The helicopter that until now had been in the background, seemed as if it was about to land on top of the church. The noise brought a stray thought int Mutsu's head, intterupting his inquisition. _'Only Shin-Ra would be stupid enough to fly UNDER the plate… wait… did Uzume get the chance to explain the situation to Zack?'_

Eyes going wide at the thought that he might have inadvertently separated Zack and Uzume MUCH more permanently than he had intended, Mutsu urgently stood and headed for the door. "Uzume, did you get the chance to explain ANYTHING to Zack yet?"

Shaking her head as she caught up, "No he fell through the roof before I could get a word in then you fought, and here we are. Why?"

Pointing towards the noise of the helicopter Mutsu explained his urgent rush to the door. "Because your boy-toy is with Shin-Ra, only THEY are stupid enough to fly a helicopter under the plate."

The Uzume froze in place as the logic ran through her mind. "…no, No, NO! Damnit, I just found him, I can't loose him now! This isn't fair!"

Rushing to the double doors of the Church, Uzume nearly tore them off the hinges in her attempt to get outside. When she did the sight of a Shin-Ra helo lifting over the skyline with Zack inside greeted her.

********Scene Break ********

*A few minutes earlier*

Now that the adrenaline rush of falling forty stories, getting into a lightning quick duel with a MAJOR badass, and the make out session with his minor goddess was wearing off, Zack was bored.

After Mutsu had walked off, and the beautiful and mysterious Uzume had joined him, he was left with SOO many unanswered questions. He REALLY hoped she would be coming back to explain what was going on. He was pretty sure he was smitten with her, wasn't everyday a woman as hot as that not only saved his life TWICE, but decided to explore his tonsils with her tongue as well…

Plus she had said something about 'forever and ever' that stuck with him. She still needed to explain A LOT about what was going on.

To alleviate his boredom, Zack began pacing out the sink hole that was left from Mutsu's technique _'…5…10…15….20 yards… damn, that's even more than a Quakeaga paired with an 'all' support can get… he really DID outclass me in the magic department, wonder what else the guy could do?'_

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his PHS ringing.

"Zack speaking…"

The voice on the other end was distorted by the small speaker on the phone, but it was still recognizable, as Tseng. "Zack, Tseng. We have a situation in Modeohime."

Exasperated at being jerked around so much, and not even getting the chance to really breathe. "Can it wait? I'm kinda in the middle of something here."

"No Zack, I need you in Modeohime NOW. A helo is enroute"

Sighing lightly Zack gave in to the futility of it all.

"Roger, I'm down on the lower level of Junon in front of a church."

"I know Zack; the helo is already on its way."

Sitting down on the ground, and waiting for his ride, Zack hoped that the mysterious Uzume would come back out soon; he wanted to a very least get her phone number, or her address.

But it was no use; the helo arrived first, with Tseng and two Shin-Ra guards loaded inside already. Opening the door and motioning the SOLDIER into the aircraft Tseng held his hand out to assist. "Glad to see your still alive Zack."

His Irrepressible nature surfaced once again, so what if work was interfering with his love life; she wasn't the only girl out there for him. Hell the four girls he had seen inside were pretty cute too, didn't manage to catch any names, but it was the thought that mattered. "You too Tseng, have any trouble in the reactor?"

"Nothing particularly interesting I didn't anticipate." A smirk played across his face as he and Zack exchanged pleasantries over the roar of the aircraft engine.

Handing the SOLDIER a file folder Tseng took a seat and closed the door. "Here… details about the situation."

As the helicopter took off, Zack was engrossed in the file folder and never saw Uzume below him, waving for him to stop.

********Scene Break ********

Modeohime, a small village up in the Nibel Mountains, very near to Nibelhime, they both shared the output from a single Mako reactor. In addition to the reactor, the only Shin-Ra facilities in the area, was a Mako refinery plant behind the village proper.

The call for the investigation had gone up from Nibelhime about a week ago. Some mountaineers had crossed to do some inter village trading; instead they found monsters of an unusual variety inhabiting the area, and the citizens of Modeohime disappeared leaving the village empty.

Details were sparse, but the job called for an investigation of the area around the town and refinery, elimination of the new monster nest, or source. And the reassurance of the citizens of Nibelhime that Shin-Ra would protect them.

Tseng was here for the investigation, he may not like the tedious sleuth work, but he was good at it. Zack was here for the monster cleanup. Sephiroth would have been called, but he had sequestered himself in a data room in the Shin-Ra tower, and was un-reachable at the moment. So Zack got pulled fresh from a fight, same as Tseng, and shoved straight into a new one. He still had the issue of his broke sword to deal with though…

"Hey Tseng, have we got any supplies on this bird?"

"Unfortunately no why?" Zack and Tseng were speaking to each other over a communications headset; it blocked out the sound of the engines, and had a headset build in so they could talk.

Zack with no need to vocalize his reply took the sword from his back, and showed it to Tseng, the chips, cracks and general damage the sword had taken left it unusable.

"Ah… I see; that is a problem."

One of the troopers, having been listening in on the conversation unhooked his sword from his belt and held it up. "Sir, take mine, it's probably a bit light for you but the steel is Shin-Ra made, so it should holdup to the material use pretty well. And I never get to use it anyway."

"Thanks trooper, what's your name?" Zack took the blade, honestly grateful for the replacement.

"Sergeant Cloud Strife, Sir. 1st Infantry brigade 2nd exploratory division"

The sergeant was young, no more than 17, probably just as young as Zack was himself when he joined SOLDIER. And to make sergeant… that took skill.

"How long you been in Cloud?" Zack had to find out, if this kid had the potential, then he NEEDED to recruit him for SOLDIER, with Angeal and Genesis both gone, and the majority of the 2nds, and 3rds deserting the program was hurting for troops.

"A little over a year sir." The kid was nearly perfect, sure he was a bit quiet and a little scrawny, but Zack could work on that.

The thing that mad the kid stand out to Zack Aside from his bright chocobo yellow hair, was his rank. The typical infantry worked on a numbered scale. 1 – 15 it took time and skill to advance. Sergeant was rank 5 on the scale. Not exactly the highest, but it still took the typical soldier more than 3 years to get there. Cloud did it in 1…

There was a spot of turbulence and the pilot told everyone to hang on, as a monster nearly ran headlong into the helicopter, but the pilot was skilled and managed to avoid crashing into the mountain. Zack couldn't help but stare at the terrain after that. He was familiar with trekking through the woods. "whoo… that walk would have sucked…"

Cloud nodded his assent. "Yea, snowy mountains like this aren't easy to climb. Nibelhime is just as bad this time of year."

Zack looked mildy excited, which for a normal person was practically vibrating. "So you're a country boy too?! Awesome."

Cloud overwhelmed by the SOLDIER's enthusiasm, could only nod. Continuing on his rant, Zack turned to Tseng and the other trooper in the helicopter.

"No worries! Even if we do get lost out here, we've got two good'ol country boys to get us out!"

"I'm so relived to hear that." Tseng deadpanned.

"So Zack, where are you from?" Cloud wondered aloud, hoping to shift the subject slightly.

Pointing his thumb to himself he proudly proclaimed. "Me? I'm, from Gongagga!"

Cloud chuckled softly. "Gongagga? That's such a hick name…"

"Ditto Nibelhime." Zack crossed his arms over his chest and pouted slightly.

"HEY! You ever been there?" Cloud found himself getting defensive as well.

Zack considered the question for a moment with his index finger on his chin. "No… but there is a reactor out there right?"

Hesitantly cloud responded. "Yea so?"

Zack had a devious smile on his face as he brought cloud along for the joke.

"You know what they say about any place with a reactor outside of Midgar…"

Seeing where Zack was going, Cloud joined him in finishing the statement.

"Probably nothing else out there…" The pair fell into helpless fits of laughter after that.

The rest of the ride to Modeohime went smoothly and without incident. Zack and Cloud spent most of the ride talking, Zack trying to convince Cloud that he COULD make it in SOLDIER and that he should volunteer, and cloud doubting his ability. Tseng tried to rest, and the other trooper busied himself by cleaning his gear.

********Scene Break ********

Modeohime was exactly as the reports had said; a deserted town full of unusual monsters.

To Zack, these monsters had a special significance. Somewhere on or near the head of many of the odd creatures, was an odd structure that resembled the face of SOLDIER 1st class Angeal Hewly, it was disturbing.

To everyone else it was just odd. Tseng recognized the likeness but without any kind of proof was able to dismiss it as a simple curiosity. Cloud and the other trooper looked at it as nothing more than an odd growth, or a tumor of some kind.

It was hard to tell if the monsters were originating from, or simply drawn to the bath house on the edge of town. Regardless that is where the concentration was thickest. Zack drew the light saber that Cloud had lent him and made his way there, calling over his shoulder to Tseng and the others. "Tseng, I'm going to work on the monster problem, you and the others focus on your investigation, meet back here at nightfall."

"Right, be careful Zack. We will see you this evening." Giving Zack a wave before turning to head to the refinery with the troopers Tseng gave the town one final look.

'_Something about this feels off, even for a refinery accident.'_

Heading off to the Refinery Tseng began his investigation in earnest.

Zack found that Cloud had been spot on the money; the blade was MUCH lighter than he was used to, but it handled channeling the power of his material flawlessly.

And now that he had his offensive options restored, Zack cut through the monsters like a scythe through wheat. The Kappa, monsters that resembled humanoid turtles, gave him a bit more trouble, only because the sword he was using wasn't heavy enough to get through their shells.

Eventually he made his way to the third floor of the bathhouse, in one of the atrium sun rooms Zack found something that made his breath catch, and his heart pause.

Standing with his back to the stairs, was Angeal but unlike the composed and controlled SOLDIER that had mentored Zack for years, Angeal now shook with barely controlled rage. A large white wing spread out from his back at the shoulder, and another smaller wing spread out from just below that.

Angeal had wings. Zack had seen some of the Genesis copies with wings; some of the stronger ones sprouted a single large wing out of their right shoulder, and some of the weaker ones sported a proper pair. But he had NEVER expected to see a man like Angeal with wings.

"Zack, I knew you would find me eventually." Angeal's words were heavy with a sorrow only he knew. "Look at me Zack, Look at what I have become… I'm a monster."

"Angeal…" Zack didn't know how to help his mentor, the situation was totally reversed. HE was supposed to be receiving knowledge not Angeal.

"Its all falling apart Zack, my dreams, my honor… everything." Angeal's voice continued to become more and more sorrowful with every word.

"NO! Angeal your honor is intact, just look at the blade in your hand! Didn't your father have that forged for you?"

"MY FATHER DIED BECAUSE OF THIS BLADE!" Even though his face was flush with rage, Zack could tell that Angel's face was a mess, cracks, and lines like faults in a marble statue were spreading through his flesh. The very colors of his skin seeming to be leached away by some unknown force, but his eyes were alight with anger.

"And my mother committed suicide from the shame of it all. I have no honor Zack." His face ashen and his eyes downcast, Angeal asked Zack a question.

"Do you remember who I told you were the enemies of SOLDIER?"

Nodding his head Zack replied. "All those who bring sorrow and strife to the world are our enemies… But YOU aren't one of them Angeal! You've been fighting to bring peace for YEARS!"

Nodding slowly at Zack's words Angeal's reply chilled the younger 1st to the bone.

"I brought my own sorrow Zack. Please, help me be rid of it."

Looking at the troop saber in Zack's hand Angeal had a slightly amused look on his depressed face. "Zack, before we begin, put the toy away, and take this."

Handing his protégé the hilt for the buster sword Angeal smiled for the first time since Zack had seen him in Wutai, more than four years ago.

"This blade still holds all of my hopes and dreams, and the honor I cherished so much. But it doesn't mean anything in my hands anymore. But you aren't tied down like I am. Take it Zack, and show me your honor!"

Overwhelmed by the situation, Zack could only dumbly take the proffered sword from his mentor and assume his stance.

Angeal walked over to a corner of the atrium and retrieved a pair of Kappa tridents. Taking a wide stance Angeal readied himself, Zack mirrored his mentor.

The Duel began slowly, both swordsmen pacing a circle around the room, awaiting the first move from the opponent.

The Buster Sword in Zack's hands was heavy, Angeal had originaly waved the weight of the blade away as a burden to bear, and Zack could still remember what he had said.

'_This blade is full of the hopes and dreams of my parents, and my entire village. So of course it's heavy...'_

Angeal struck first, charging in with his dual tridents, the outside edges of the weapons were sharp, leaving the tridents more akin to axes, rather than spears, Angeal with all his power as a 1st could cleave stone with a weapon like that trying to block and recover would be suicide, Zack HAD to dodge. Fortunately in the four years since his mentor had vanished; the young man had grown significantly stronger and faster. And he knew how Angeal would attack.

'_A quick vertical to provoke me, and a heavy horizontal to punish if I block...'_

True to form, Angeal brought the first trident down in an overhand axe cut.

Zack took advantage of the attack, and instead of blocking it, he dropped the point of the Buster Sword to the ground, wrenching the hilt up and out, parrying the swing wide.

Angeal saw the opening in Zack's defense and cringed. He HAD to take advantage; Zack just wasn't ready to replace him yet.

But when he launched his second swing attempting to strike Zack with the flat of the blade, and found that Zack wasn't where he expected his eyes went wide in shock.

Zack had let the handle of the Buster Sword go, burying the point in the floor allowing it to stand on its own. After he parried the first swing and set the blade; he ducked and spread his legs wide, gaining a good foundation for what he planned next.

Angeal saw his mistake, he had underestimated his pupil. And now he would pay for it, not as much as he would like, but the fight was just getting started.

Zack had lowered himself for a shoulder charge, and with Angeal's arms crossed over his chest, Zack was in a good position to break one of his arms if he put enough into it.

He did.

From his braced and lowered position Zack had enough strength to move a semi-truck. And when it was directed violently it could shatter stone. Stepping into the move Zack drove his elbow straight into Angeal's forearm, the resistance he felt faltered as both forearm and sternum broke under the assault.

Memories of his time under Angeal continued to play in Zack's mind as the fight went on.

'_...Always protect your SOLDIER honor Zack, it is more than just your pride or your life on the line, the lives of you, your comrades, and the civilians living in any city under our protection rest on you as a member of SOLDIER, THAT is our pride. Protect it always...'_

The elbow strike caused Angeal to stumble backwards, just enough distance for Zack to combo the attack with a quick double kick. Jumping into the air he lashed out with his left leg, and connecting with Angeal's chin, before he could fly away from the impact or before Zack landed he lashed out with his other leg, striking Angeal hard in the chest, sending him careening off to the other side of the room. One of his tridents left buried in the floor, dropped when Zack broke his arm.

The last words he had spoke to his mentor flashed through his mind as he watched him fly into the wall.

'_Alright, alright, I get it. I'll let you take the tower. Just remember… It's not just your pride on the line here Zack, it's the pride of all of SOLDIER, don't tarnish it by losing or dying now.'_

Grabbing the Buster Sword from the ground Zack charged forward, intent on catching Angeal on the ground and forcing him to yield, this could still be salvaged, Shin-Ra could fix him, there was no for him to die dammit!

He got there before Angeal could recover, just as he planned.

"Yield Angeal, this is pointless! We can fix this! Let's just go back to Shin-Ra together."

Shaking his head at the naive young 1st. "You don't plan on finishing me off do you?"

Shaking his head emphatically Zack continued to try and speak reason to his mentor.

"Of course not Angeal there is no way I could ever kill you! Please! Just come back to Shin-Ra with me! Ill prove it to you, we can fix this."

Looking more resolved and angry than Zack had ever seen him before Angeal decided to force Zack's hand, "Fine Zack, I had hoped to die with some semblance of Honor intact, but I guess showing you the extent of my sorrow will be enough." Angeal never moved, but Zack felt something change in the air. The moments passed slowly, Zack wondering what his mentor was planning, and Angeal patiently waiting for something.

The shattering of the Skylights and the doors breaking were all the warning Zack received. At least one of EVERY type of monster currently present in Modeohime had just barged into the room.

Zack thinking that he was about to come under assault turned his attention to the oncoming horde. When they ALL rushed past him and pilled onto Angeal Zack knew something was up...

******** Scene Break ********

On the 105th floor of the MBI tower in Junon three women and a single man sat in an immense apartment suite. The apartment belonged to Karasuba, and the other women in the suite with her, were Miya and Uzume. Mutsu had brought the young woman up to see her. Apparently he had screwed up ROYALLY, and Miya was off with him in a private room letting him have it full on.

Uzume however even though she had done nothing wrong was an absolute wreck.

Finding and then being torn away from her Ashikabi had been hard on the girl, and while Karasuba couldn't grasp the full force of what Uzume was going through, she did have an idea. She had recently found her thoughts more and more occupied by the tall silver haired swordsman in Shin-Ra's employ.

Karasuba was honestly glad that Uzume hadn't chosen Sephiroth as her Ashikabi, at the moment just thinking about another woman with her hands on his strong muscular chest set her into a near murderous rage.

If she had to sit here and remain celibate, waiting for the opportune moment, then she sure as hell wasn't about to let some other floozy have him all to herself.

But all of that was unimportant; Uzume had found one of his SUBORDINATES.

Zack Fair if Karasuba had deciphered Uzmes sobs right. The only other active 1st class officer the program had at the moment.

But the reason that Mutsu was in back getting his ass chewed, and Uzume was sitting on Karasuba's couch with a box of Kleenex sobbing her eyes out, was the simple fact that During the war with Wutai, Karasuba, Kazehana, Akitsu, and Homura, all had more contact with Shin-Ra, and SOLDIER in general than all of the other Sekirei put together.

Mutsu had brought Uzume here in a moment of brilliance after he broke her. The other four girls still in Aerith's church had Homura and Akitsu standing watch for the moment. Miya had heard of the commotion somehow, and shown up full of spite and vinegar just for Mutsu, not that Kara could blame her; his mistake seemed to have set poor Uzume over the proverbial edge.

Karasuba had tried contacting Sephiroth by PHS, hoping to make this production as short as possible. But she had no luck, either he wasn't around his phone, or he just wasn't answering. Her next choice had been the office of Director Lezard, but again she had no luck. Nobody anywhere seemed to be answering.

From this point Karasuba had two choices she could use, neither was very appealing.

One: go to Shin-Ra HQ in person and smash heads until she got answerers. While the thought of causing a commotion like that appealed to her, the legal ramifications did not.

Two: she could call Matsu, and have her find out what was going on.

This was un-appealing for many reasons. Aside from the lack of stress relieving head smashing, foremost among them was the fact that Matsu was about as much of a letch as was possible especially considering she was a virgin. Her talk of "experimentation" left just about everyone unsettled. Even Minaka was hesitant to be in a room alone with her.

But, the lascivious witch had a way with computers, and information in general that bordered on invasion of privacy. If there was a bit of information or a secret that Matsu hadn't heard of, Karasuba wasn't aware of it... on second thought; that WAS the purpose of a secret wasn't it?

In the end, after she was done with beating Mutsu black and blue, Miya was in favor of having Matsu help. And while Karasuba was nervous about setting foot in the witches den, she was absolutely ADAMANT that Matsu couldn't come down to her room. No telling what kind of surprises she would leave behind to spy with.

Walking into her room was a 'unique' experience. All of her windows had heavy black drapes hung over them, blanketing the room in darkness, a full half of the room had a large pillow-like mat spread over the floor, surrounding that on three sides, were computer monitors and TV screens of every shape and size. The screens were displaying information from across the globe. Stock prices, news media, you name it, and she had it displayed. There was even a schematic for the Shin-Ra tower displayed prominently on the largest monitor.

Matsu herself was in her mid twenties, barely younger than Karasuba herself. Her skin was pale from the lack of sunlight, and she had a thick pair of glasses over her eyes. She dressed in a moderately conservative fashion, favoring a modern Wutai style Cheongsam

Dress of pure white, with a long revealing split along the legs, and a small cut out of the chest, revealing a generous portion of her cleavage.

********Scene Break ********

The magic in the air had attracted some of the most horrific beasts Terra had ever seen. Dragons. Behemoths, undead, and even some power hungry Ninja were here. And after fighting through all of them Terra and her friends stood at the steps below the emperor and his mad clown mage. Only one thing stood in their way.

Atma Weapon, a monster straight out of the pages of legend. A massive four legged beast with wicked claws adorning each of the four digits on each paw, a long thick whip like tail sprouted from its spine covered back, and a crown of horns formed around its reptilian skull. It was the living pair and partner to the blade that Terra carried even now. But unlike the magnificent blade that Terra had come to rely on in combat, the beast was hardly benevolent and it was unfortunately sleeping on the stairs that the group needed to ascend.

The corona of energy that most everything seemed to have on the Island was highlighted to the point where it seemed Atma possessed a halo of pure energy.

As the group readied their weapons and approached the sleeping beast a low rumble filled the air.

**"I am Atma... I am pure energy... and as ancient as the cosmos. I do not bleed, for I am but strength given form. I've had eternity to ponder the meaning of existence... And now I have an answer...** ** Feeble creatures... Your time is nigh!"**

The head of the beast snapped towards the group, pure energy and oozing between the gaps in its tooth filled maw gleaming in the sunlight and leaking upon the ground as spittle would from a dog, marring and pitting the ground where it landed.

Lashing out with one of its talon adorned paw's the beast began trying to sweep the group of heroes from the floating island to their doom. Shadow was able to dodge the beast's attempt with relative ease, but the rest of the group wasn't so lucky. The effort on Atma's part was nearly successful. His hit threw the group yards away from the monster. Giving him the space he needed to begin channeling his magic uninterrupted.

Retaliating with his short blades and shuriken Shadow found the hide of the monster to be nearly impregnable. Edgar recovering from the initial hit; struck the beast with his lance and found much the same result; ancient magic suffused the creature completely, making it all but immune to most methods of attack.

When Terra recovered enough to take her opening and attack the beast, the Atma weapon in her hands positively buzzed with energy. Up until now, the blade had barely been as strong as one of shadow's short swords. But in the presence of its pair, the blade blazed to its full glory. Nearly four and a half feet long, and six inches broad, and aside from the crystal knife embedded in the wrought gold and mithril hilt, the blade was composed of pure energy, and so it weighed nothing. When she struck the beast on its flank, much to everyone involved surprise, the blade of energy sunk deep into the flesh of the monster.

Its head came around to face Terra as fast as a cobra striking, instantly aware of what had struck such a wound; the beast looked to regard the timid woman before it.

"**Child of my enemy, you bear a token of great power... how did you come to possess this?"**

Looking the beast square in the massive eye Terra stood her ground.

"I found it abandoned in a cave, my ancestors placed it beyond human hands and now it is MINE!" Accentuating her statement by flaring the Esper power within her, Terra assumed her transformed state, a feral creature of pink and deadly wrath.

"**HAHAHAH! Wonderful! Come then child let us test if you are worthy of such a fate."**

Atma then began focusing solely on Terra; disregarding all of her friends as mere nuisances fortunately Terra was not alone.

Celes had been waiting, watching for the tell tale sign that the beast was about to unleash its magic. When it did, she was ready; her chant already in progress, the power of the ancient spell that Atma was using was almost too much for Celes to handle. As it was all she could do, was turn the spell back around at Atma, and hope he couldn't absorb his own artillery.

The explosion of fire darkened the sky, and scorched the ground, the smell of ash hung heavy in the air. But Atma seemed mostly un-phased by its own assault returned to it, if anything; it seemed more amused than it had been to discover that Terra held the bladed partner to its existence.

"**MARVELOUS! You children have come prepared! Come do not disappoint me! Free me from these shackles of mortal greed, and I shall be yours to command daughter of my enemies!"**

From here the creature seemed to fall into a feral berserker rage, its spell casting seemed to be more a consequence of its existence rather than a planned effect. Raw waves of magic washed over Terra and Celes, nearly crippling both of them, but Edgar and Shadow knowing when they were outclassed, both stepped back and focused on healing the pair of women.

The clash lasted for nearly an hour, with Atma showing no sign of injury or fatigue. Terra and Celes were on their last legs however. When the great beast finally held up one of its massive paws both of the women froze.

"**ENOUGH. You have proven your worth, and from this moment on, I claim you as my own children. No longer are you the daughters of my enemies, Stand proud, none before you have accomplished what you four have done this day."**

Looking towards Terra the great beast spoke in a hushed tone to her.

"**Child, you bear my other half. As long as this blade exists, so shall I, when your need is great call upon me. Your enemies will flee like rats before a storm at my wrath."**

Turning back to regard the rest of the group the beast spoke once more.

"**My time is spent, my shackles are broken, my rest earned. Goodbye Daughters of Atma. Hahahahah!" **

Even in death the beast seemed to fear nothing, laughing at the prospect of oblivion. With the magic binding him together spent, the beast simply faded from sight. The only thing left to do now, was confront Emperor Gesthal, and Kefka.


	10. Chapter 7

********Chapter 7 ********

Celes couldn't believe her eyes. She had known that emperor Gesthal had ambitions of world domination. He had nearly said as much himself. His "unification of all lands and peoples under the enlightened rule of the Gesthalan Empire" practically screamed megalomania. But now he had taken an entire half of the Vector continent, and somehow caused it to float in the air. It was an unprecedented feat of magic that was meant to inspire fear and loyalty to the empire.

Only now with the distance she had as one of the resistance fighters trying to bring the empire down did she see just how truly corrupt it had become. In a truly underhanded move, the emperor had aligned himself _with_ the Returners. It was an obvious ploy aimed at gaining the cooperation of the once-enslaved half-Esper Terra, to try to "make peace" with the Espers that had taken residence within our world.

The worst part? The Returners bought it, hook line and sinker when Kefka had been "imprisoned" as a punishment for his crimes. It was supposed to be a show of good faith to the rebels the empire was turning over a new leaf.

But in the end, the empire proved just how black its colors truly were. When General Leo Christoph and Celes who had recently been re-instated as a general, escorted Terra and Locke to the village of Thamasa to make peace with some of the Espers, Kefka showed up with a platoon of Mega class M-Tek armors, killed all of the Espers, and absorbed their power, all "in the name of the emperor" if his claims were to be believed. General Leo was furious, and attempted to stop Kefka by any means. It was his finest moment, however it ended in vain. The magic Kefka wielded had grown to the point where Leo couldn't even scratch the mage.

Kefka proved just how little respect he had for life when he killed Leo.

A simple 'Stop' kept the righteous general from moving, then Kefka walked over and slowly, ever so slowly, pushed his dagger into Leo's heart.

It was a travesty. Celes was supposed to be one of the strongest within Vector, but Kefka had rendered her, Terra, Locke and the mercenary Shadow helpless with less effort than he spared for Leo. Celes was forced to watch as her friend and comrade was butchered.

The horrors of the 'new' empire didn't stop there either. In a bid for more power, Gesthal and Kefka made a raid on the home of the Espers and apparently killed all of them. With the newfound power they had broken off the mountains on the eastern most side of the Vector continent and turned it into their own private fortress in the sky.

Celes, Terra, and the rest of the Returners had staged a raid on the floating fortress, fighting their way through nearly the entire Gesthalan air force in the process. Then once they had finally gotten onto the island, and fought their way up to where the emperor and his clown were at, they had to confront the legendary beast 'Atma'.

The fight between her and Terra against Atma lasted for the better part of an hour of near-continuous combat. Eventually Celes and her comrades were victorious. The only thing left was the emperor himself, and his clown.

Still battered from the fight with the enormous beast, the group ascended the stairs to confront the emperor and his depraved minion.

When they reached the top, the emperor was standing on the far side of a group of three statues. Between the statues was a visible distortion in the air, a reflection of the sheer amount of magic that the statues were generating.

Kefka was behind his emperor, turning to face the group with a sneer. "Hmpf! Never get a dog to do a clown's work." With a disinterested wave of his hand Kefka disabled all four of the heroes. It wasn't that 'Stop' spell; Celes had seen that trick and came prepared with a relic to prevent it.

This was raw magic, directed with the intent of overwhelming the senses, not halting a targets movement. Celes could still see Edgar, Terra and Shadow out of the corner of her eyes; they were in the same state as her: disoriented but still struggling to move.

The emperor without turning spoke to the group. "It truly is amazing isn't it? All of this power, hidden beneath our very feet for millennia, and now it's mine." Turning to regard Celes, the megalomaniac continued. "Child, you used to be my brightest hope. There is still a place for you at my side. Come: prove that you are still loyal to me."

A wave of his hand cleared the disorientation that Celes was experiencing. When she stood, she saw Kefka offering her the hilt of his own sword. "Uee-hee-hee, kill them Celes, kill them all. Then you can join us and rule the world!"

Taking the sword from Kefka's hand, Celes turned to regard her comrades. Kefka thinking they were about to die, kept on laughing in that horrible whooping cackle he had.

Celes paused momentarily, looking in the faces of her comrades.

Terra was basically her sister. Both women had been raised inside of the capitol city of Vector, and both had survived.

After all of the troubles that they had lived through together, fending off the raid on Narshe, finding Terra afterwards, then the raid on the research facility in Vector, she now considered Edgar a friend.

And Shadow, while not a 'friend' and loyal only to his next paycheck, had shown more honor than the empire EVER had.

None of them deserved her blade. Kefka however…

The blade in her hand was heavy. Forged of mithril laced with adamantine, it was a superbly sharp and elegant sword, the balance of the blade was a little high, but it wasn't anything an informed wielder couldn't compensate for. The bevel groove that traced the back of the blade, both to reduce the weight and allow blood to flow freely, was an elegant affair. And soon it would be full of Kefka's blood.

Celes turned and without any warning drove the blade in her hands into the mad clown that had been responsible for so much death. The blade sunk in with a satisfying crunch as it bit into the madman's ribs.

"Bl…bl…blood!?" Kefka's disbelief was palpable as he stared at the wound. The magic he had used made him nearly invulnerable, but Celes had somehow managed to get through his defenses. Kefka began rolling on the ground flailing about in a fit of pain and rage. A mad light seemed to fill his eyes as he came to his feet. "UGH! I'll show you!"

Jumping into the middle of the statues his wound closing almost instantly, Kefka sent a cry to the goddesses. "HEAR ME GODDESSES! Your power is MINE! Give it to me now!"

Raising his hands in the air, a visible spark of raw magic could bee seen between his outstretched hands. Throwing it straight at Celes he knocked her back with her friends, paralyzed.

The emperor had been silent during the exchange. But when Kefka entered the field the goddesses he crossed a line. The power of the goddesses was HIS and HIS ALONE. As emperor the world should be bowing and scraping at HIS feet, not the feet of his general. He had forgiven Kefka's prior transgressions... Stealing Espers from the empire for his own use, poisoning Doma, losing Terra and killing general Cristophe. All of these the emperor could forgive. But stealing the emperor's personal possession right in front of him? Unforgivable. "Kefka, the statues are MINE! Step away NOW!"

"Uee-hee-hee-hee, so much power! It tingles… hee-hee." Kefka was almost beside himself in ecstasy with all the power in his hands. His eyes began rolling into the back of his skull in ecstasy.

"KEFKA! You have gone too far, now its time for you to sleep." The emperor had enough, not only was his subordinate stealing from him, he was ignoring him.

The magic at the emperor's disposal was supposedly the strongest within his empire. And with _his_ empire the only kingdom on the planet with access to magic now, he had turned himself into one of the most powerful people on the planet. When he raised his hands and began casting Kefka's expression twisted into a grimace of fear and surprise. "Thundaga!"

The emperor's chosen spell was a frighteningly strong electrical spell, one that could knock out a dragon if not outright kill them, and a person was far less resilient to such power. But as the energy of the spell approached the statues, each of them acted as a lightning rod and absorbed the spell.

"Uee-hee-hee-hee! Is that all you've got _EMPEROR?_" Kefka stood unharmed within the goddess's field, cackling in delight. But the emperor wasn't done yet.

"FIRAGA!" Another spell that would boil away the flesh and cook any normal man alive, but once again the statues interfered with the casting. The fire of the spell hit the field, and was absorbed into the statues.

The emperor was getting desperate now.

"BLIZZAGA! FLARE! METEOR!" spell after spell rained down on the mad jester, the damage the emperor would have unleashed on any normal opponent would have been cataclysmic.

But Kefka stood unharmed within the field of the goddesses, laughing away. Heaving out an exasperated sigh the clown looked at the emperor "I've grown tired of this, _my lord_. SILENCE!"

A wave of his hand and a pulse of magic rendered the megalomaniacal, formerly unstoppable emperor impotent. "Uee-hee-hee… I've been thinking. Dangerous I know, but it happens every now and then. But I've been thinking it's time for a new world order… MY world order!"

Walking over to the emperor who was still vainly trying to cast magic, Kefka slit his throat with contemptuous ease. As the emperor's lifeblood spilled over the ground, Kefka grabbed the lapels of his robes. Picking him up, he walked to the edge of the floating island and let him go with a sick grin, watching the old man freefell to his inevitable death.

"Let's see if you can _fly_ old man..." Kefka stood for a moment and gave a belittling wave. "Bye bye…" stepping away from the edge the madman brought his hand to his head and began cackling madly. "Uee hee hee hee! I have the statues, I have the magic! THE WORLD IS MINE!" Looking to the group of heroes, Kefka had a gleam in his eyes that bespoke a broken mind. "Well would you look at that! You all have front row seats to the end of the world!"

Moving to one of the statues, Kefka began pushing it out of alignment with its sisters.

The field of magic that the sisters were generating began to destabilize. Freeing the rest of the heroes from the debilitating effect they were under.

Once their heads were clear, both Celes and Shadow jumped into action to push the other two statues against Kefka, trapping him between the goddesses. Turning to the others Shadow, who rarely spoke, yelled out, "Go! I've got him, get out of here! I'll be right behind you!"

Celes, Terra, and Edgar ran like the devil himself was behind them. At the edge of the island, the Airship "Blackjack" was waiting for them just below within easy jumping distance. Edgar turned to the two women. "Go! I'll make sure Shadow gets here safe!"

Terra and Celes shared a worried look before turning to the king. Celes spoke first. "Don't keep us waiting!" With that said, Celes jumped aboard the Blackjack.

Terra looked to the king with worried eyes, "Please be careful, you still have a lot to teach me after all." Leaning in she gave the heroic king a kiss.

A broad smile on his face Edgar encouraged Terra to go. "Go, Terra I'll be right behind you."

She jumped aboard the Blackjack just as the world began to shake and the sky began to darken.

********Chapter 7 ********

Sephiroth was tired, a state he had to work to reach at his level. He had spent nearly three days locked inside of one of the private data rooms. Something wasn't adding up: Genesis disappearance was all wrong. Something must have influenced the warrior poet to abandon Shin-Ra and everything he knew.

Like Sephiroth, Genesis was basically raised to be in SOLDIER, but unlike the silver-haired General, Genesis had a family that he could return to every night. Family was still something Sephiroth was completely unfamiliar with.

Genesis's family were wealthy merchants based out of the village of Banora, but sections of his file kept referring to a 'Project G' that was based out of Modeoheim. That was the home of another missing 1st class operative, Angeal Hewly. When Sephiroth dug into Angeal's file out of curiosity and a nervous hunch, he found references to this 'Project G' as well.

Pure morbid curiosity forced Sephiroth to examine his own files. What he found disturbed him greatly. It seemed conspiracy and foul play surrounded the entire SOLDIER project like a shroud. The references to 'Project G' were missing, but instead he found near-constant references to 'Subject S'. More digging revealed that 'Subject S' was part of the 'S' branch of the 'Jenova Project' and that both 'Project G' and 'Project S' were branches of this overarching 'Jenova Project'

And not only was the project based out of Nibelheim, but the name 'Jenova' was the name that Hojo had attributed to Sephiroth's mother.

The strange thing was that despite the fact all of that Genesis, Angeal and his own files were all HEAVILY classified. Sephiroth was able to see the personnel information in their unedited format, but some of the other information, such as basic reactor schematics, was under full censorship. More to the point, while Sephiroth wasn't a Luddite by any stretch of the imagination he was far from a hacker. Naturally, when the information he was interested in basically fell into his lap, he was suspicious to say the least.

When he emerged from the data room and saw the deployment orders for Zack and himself to head into Modeoheim, the coincidence was too much to ignore. Once the business in Modeoheim was wrapped up, he was going to drag Zack and whoever else was with him over to Nibelheim and find out what was going on exactly.

Sephiroth considered his options carefully: Zack had received his orders to Modeoheim nearly fifty hours ago, and the flight there from his previous post in Junon was almost 16 hours long. If Sephiroth caught a ride on one of the cargo transports on a flight straight from Midgar to the new "Rocket Town" he could be in Modeoheim in no more than thirty hours.

The Trip from Midgar to Rocket Town went faster than the General had anticipated, when he went to find a cargo plane and the pilot of the first one he found had told the general that they could depart within 20 minutes with only half of the cargo and supplies loaded he had been a bit suspicious. He wasn't complaining, but considering that all of these useful 'coincidences' had been lining up like they had, he _knew_ something was off. In the end the General settled for sending an inquiry to director Tuesti about the official procedures, and possibly a review of the personnel once he returned.

The trip from the new Rocket Town to Modeoheim had proven slightly more interesting. When he first arrived in Rocket Town, he saw that it was barely more than a few shacks surrounding the new Shin-Ra rocket just outside of the safe blast zone. But for all of the town's 'rustic charm' Sephiroth did see what he was looking for, a Shin-Ra-controlled troop transport.

Getting it away from its owner had been interesting...

"... NO! Ya can't have my goddamn-mother-fuckin' truck, ya sunnuva bitch!"

This particularly foulmouthed pilot was also Shin-Ra's best: Cid Highwind. He had flown more than a few insertion missions with the General back in the war and because of their shared history it had only taken Sephiroth three hours, the promise of two cases of beer and a few 'premium' cigars once they got back to civilized lands to get the truck away from the man. After the deal had been struck the man had been downright amenable, even going so far as to offer to drive the truck to Modeoheim himself. Sephiroth politely declined the offer, insisting that a regular MP from the rocket guard detail would be more than sufficient.

Honestly, Sephiroth was glad for the minor snag that Cid had presented. If it wasn't for that, or if he had managed to get the truck with less problems, then he might have been inclined to simply level the town to try and flush the puppet master out of hiding. As it was Cid managed to rein his paranoia back in to more manageable levels convincing himself that coincidences were bound to happen.

The drive from Rocket to Modeoheim was supposed to be a two hour affair and an almost straight east drive. The MP driver that Sephiroth picked had managed the trip in under an hour and ten. He swore that the truck caught air three times at the very least. Because of it the General hadn't managed to catch any sleep on the way over. Come to think of if, he hadn't gotten any sleep on the flight to Rocket, either...

So when he arrived in the abandoned village of Modeoheim, his usual clinical disinterest and professional distance were replaced with an exhausted apathy. Signs of combat were everywhere: broken buildings, shattered glass, ruined homes. Monster corpses strewn throughout the village were a good indicator of what had happened.

Rain had slowly begun to fall in the village. It gave the whole scene a creepy, ethereal quality that wasn't lost on the general. A quick search of the area was all it took to find the heavy footprints Zack tended to leave in any kind of soft ground.

He also found the prints of three others: two more in boots, probably infantrymen, and one in special issue dress boots, probably a Turk. The prints had split ways halfway into the village with Zack heading towards the bathhouse, and the others headed for the Mako refinery higher up the mountains.

Sephiroth again weighed his options with utmost care, and chose to follow Zack. He was the only other first class SOLDIER active at the moment after all, and what he had found in the data room may very well pertain to him as well.

Making his way towards the bathhouse Sephiroth saw that Zack had been very busy with the monster-slaying. The orders on his phone were fairly vague, there was not much room in the text message after all, but apparently the orders had been an extermination operation. If they weren't, Sephiroth was going to have a _long_ conversation with the young First about the ramifications of depopulating a region of all life…

It seemed like the carnage grew more and more severe the closer Sephiroth got to his target. When he finally reached the bathhouse, the sounds of high-speed combat could be heard from the third floor atrium, and even if the building was still standing, there wasn't much more to be said about it.

The glass had been blasted from the windows and the ceiling had fallen in, so it was an easy matter to just jump up there directly. When he landed on the edge of the atrium, Sephiroth saw his younger colleague bringing Angeal's massive Buster Sword down on the head of a large monster. Apparently he was witnessing the end of the fight, for as the blade cleared the path of its swing the monster dropped to the ground, a strangely pleased look in its disturbingly familiar eyes.

Taking the moment of silence to finish his entry into the broken room, Sephiroth addressed his colleague. "Well fought, Zack."

Zack's head snapped in Sephiroth's direction. Despite all of the combat he had been in, Zack was still just as sharp as ever, a good sign. "Sephiroth! What are you doing here?"

"Not even I can ignore orders completely." Holding up his phone and indicating the deployment orders, Sephiroth's gaze fell on the Buster Sword.

It was a unique blade: Angeal's father had paid to have it forged for his son as a congratulatory present for getting into SOLDIER. However, the cost of the commission had made the man literally work himself to death to pay it off. Somehow, Zack had found a unique weapon that had supposedly fallen off of a cliff in Wutai and into its master's grave with him…

"Zack… where did you find Angeal's sword?" the taller swordsman asked coolly, his exhaustion only making the question more pointed.

"He gave it to me, he told me to use it to protect my SOLDIER honor." Zack's head fell more with every word. Eventually, he forced himself to stare straight at the blade he held, his normally energetic disposition falling away.

"When did he say this to you, Zack? I haven't seen you with that weapon before now." The timetable wasn't adding up in Sephiroth's head. Angeal had been missing for the better part of four years now, yet here Zack was talking as if he'd just had a conversation with the man.

"Just a few minutes ago, before he made me kill him."

Sephiroth froze for a second, mentally and physically. If what Zack was saying was true, it meant a lot of things. Not only had Angeal survived the Wutai explosion, but he had also remained missing for four years... of his own volition... And then when he does finally reappear he has Zack murder him? It didn't make sense, and frankly Sephiroth was tired of being led around by the nose.

"Zack, where's the body?" Sephiroth's tone had dropped into what he used to intimidate his opponents. It usually worked: most men seemed ready and willing to cooperate to avoid being subject to his ire and Zack was no exception even after everything he had just gone through.

Zack pointed lifelessly at the rapidly decomposing monster he had just finished off. "When I got here, Angeal had grown wings somehow and was fully convinced that he needed to be killed. He… I tried to talk him out of it and spared him at the end of our duel, but when he saw that I wasn't going to kill him, he turned into that…thing."

"I see…" normally such a strange story would have been passed off as either combat fatigue or a drug induced hallucination, but with the information Sephiroth had recently uncovered and the experiments that Angeal had been subjected to, the thought that the mutated aberration that Zack had fought was Angeal himself was suddenly well within the realm of possibility. The gears were turning in the General's head once more.

"This isn't freaking you out at all?" Zack had regained his energy and was almost panicking from the situation _He_ couldn't wrap his head around what had happened, and he was there for it!

Sephiroth simply shook his head. "No Zack, this is disturbing on many levels and is one of the primary reasons I'm here." Walking over to the corpse of his former colleague and friend, Sephiroth began examining the remains as much as he could before the body dissolved completely. "There are similarities between Angeal, Genesis myself and possibly you, that disturb me greatly," he murmured cryptically. "After we finish here I am commandeering you, the Turk and the infantrymen with you and going to Nibelheim for answers."

The sound of someone clapping above them drew both Zack and the General's attention like a gunshot, their bodies tensing for a fight in spite of their own tiredness. "My friend, your desire is the bringer of life… the gift of the Goddess. I feared that I would have to play the part of narrator and bring you to Nibelheim like a dog. It seems I was mistaken." Standing atop the crumbling roof of the bathhouse was Genesis, a single black wing sprouting from his shoulder and the red-bladed Rapier in his hand.

"Genesis…" Sephiroth said the name more as an accusation of guilt rather than a greeting.

"Come, I will await you in the chambers of your mother. 'He is guided by hope. And the oath that he swore to his friends.'" Quoting from Loveless as he was prone to do, the dramatic traitor dropped from his perch on the roof edge, only to rise above the building, flying towards Nibelheim.

"Sephiroth… What did he mean by 'the chambers of your mother'? Isn't your mother dead?" For Zack, the day was getting to be too much. On top of everything else that had happened, now Genesis shows up quoting poetry and spouting riddles… When would people quit being dramatic and talk sense again? _'…Wait, did they ever talk sense?'_

"Project Jenova…" Sephiroth forced himself to relax as he stood up, fighting off a cramp. "Hojo had told me that my mother was dead so you would be correct. But to answer your other question; I have no idea what he means by 'my mother's chambers' but that is why we are going to Nibelheim."

"Right, I'll call Tseng…" As Zack brought his PHS up to his ear a look of excitement came over his face, washing away the drama and depression of the day. "OH YEAH! I've got someone for you to meet boss!"

The stoic General suppressed a huff of amusement. It never failed. Seconds ago Zack was overwhelmed and on the verge of panicking, but could bring his natural excitable personality back to the front practically at will. "Oh? Finally found a girl?"

"YES! … Wait what?" The unexpectedly sarcastic comment from Sephiroth was about as effective on Zack as if he had cast a Confusion spell on him. "Oh! Nonononono! I found a recruit! You gotta meet this kid boss; he made sergeant in a little over a year. And aside from being a bit on the timid and scrawny side, the kid seems perfect for our little club!"

"So who is this 'kid'?" As always Zack was a source of levity and a good way to break the tension.

"He's one of the troops that they sent with us, says he's from Nibelheim." Recalling his conversations on the helo ride over, Zack began dialing Tseng's PHS while telling his boss about the potential recruit.

"Then I would have met him anyways wouldn't I?" Sephiroth pointed out the obvious to his companion with an obvious smirk on his face. "But I guess it won't hurt to give him a test once we get there…"

"Uh… what?" Zack's intended protests to the obvious hazing were cut off as Tseng picked up on the other end, quickly recapping the new plan and the event in the bathhouse for Tseng's benefit. Zack and Sephiroth moved to the transport the General had brought.

"Zack, let Tseng know we will be waiting for them in the truck." After giving instructions to the trooper he brought as his driver, Sephiroth climbed into the bed of the covered pickup.

"Ummm… ok but why?" Zack's confusion caught Sephiroth off guard.

"Why what?" Sephiroth peeked back out of the truck to regard his companion as he sat down and rested against the walls of the truck bed. Sephiroth was intent on getting at least SOME sleep on the trip to Nibelheim.

"Why are we driving? We have a helo waiting for us on the other side of town…" Holding the phone away from his head he pointed towards the aircraft he was referring to.

"… Tell Tseng we will be waiting there…" Climbing out of the Truck bed, and instructing his trooper to return to Cid, and his normal duties, the exhausted General made his way to the waiting helicopter with his irrepressible colleague. He hoped they at least had earmuffs available. Then again, he was tired enough that it might not make much of a difference anyway.

* * *

A/N:

A bit on the short side I know, but the muse has bee cruel of late, that and my work schedual has conspired to shred what free time, and inspiration i had.

never fear though, i dont intend to drop the story just fair warning that the update pace has slowed considerably.

as always i appreciate your reviews and comments!


	11. Chapter 8

They had failed. Stopping the empires mad grab for power, preserving the balance of the world. and the lives of its citizens. these had been the goals of Edgar, Locke, Cyan, Gau, Setzer, Terra, and the former general Celes when they had set out. But in no uncertain terms, they had failed. The world as it was once known had ended. Baptized in emperor Ghestal's blood as he fell from his own fortress.

When Kefka rearranging the three goddesses he disrupted the balance of magic they had maintained, and was in a prime position to absorb the power for himself. After doing so Kefka literally had the world at his fingertips.

To prove the point beyond a shadow of doubt, he decided to re-arrange the continents. Sinking bodies of land that had never tasted water into the depths of the ocean, and raising others into the clouds as the highest of mountains. But the power to shape the world as he saw fit wasn't enough for the would-be-god.

Out of the scraps of his and the emperors floating fortress Kefka crafted himself a monolithic tower, on a great expansive plain he had raised from the ocean floor. From the top of his tower Kefka would sit in observance of the world, judging its people. And if what he saw displeased him he would use his "light of judgment" to burn the offense from the face of HIS world.

As if the malignant oppression from his seat of power wasn't bad enough, the corruption of magic that his godhood entailed actually poisoned the world as well. The oceans ran red, plants withered and died as if under the worst of drought. And beasts across the globe ran in frenzy desperate to escape the madness and imbalance the world suffered under. Unfortunately there was to be no respite for man, beast, or plant.

It has been over a year since the returners fell and the world began to die.

******** Chapter 8 ********

The flight from Modeohime to Nibel was short, only a half hour flight from the ruined village across the spine of the mountains bordering both towns. During the flight, cursory introductions were made between then general and the troopers he wasn't familiar with.

He found that Zack's assessment of cloud to be fairly accurate, while the boy lacked somewhat in the physical department, and was a tad timid to be a true leader of men, the fact that he held a senior rank within the infantry despite his short tenure demonstrated that he had an enormous amount of potential.

Any minor complaints Sephiroth had about the boy's demeanor were meaningless, a proper training regimen would straighten out more than his lack of physical ability. the only thing that remained was to actually prepare the boy for the entrance exams themselves. but the general had a decent idea about how to go about that...

"Cloud..."

"yyy... YES sir?" clouds jumpy disposition in the presence of his superiors was mildly entertaining to the general. he himself was nearly immune to being flustered to this extent, at least as far as his life experience had taught him sofar.

"Once we reach Nibelhime we are going to conduct a brief examination of your aptitudes and strengths, after that is concluded you will either be apprenticed to myself or fair, and eventually inducted into the SOLDIER program."

slightly overwhelmed by the opportunity before him cloud couldn't rightly formulate a response to the silver haired general before him. "Uhhh... but what if im not good enough?"

"Oh? I was under the impression that getting into SOLDIER was a goal of yours? do you not want to get in?" Sephiroth knew exactly what was going on, the boys nerves were making him doubt himself, he had seen it thousands of times before, both in friendly soldiers and in his foes.

"Do you not trust myself and Fair enough to make sure you are up to OUR standards?"

Immediately flushing red at the implied insult to both the general and cloud's new friend Zack. he stammered out a hasty but emphatic response. "NO SIR! uh ... wait yes sir! umm..."

Deciding to come to his newest friend's aid Zack leaned across the passenger compartment to place his hand on cloud's shoulder. "Spikey, listen, stop while you are ahead, smile, nod, and say thank you sir!"

It wasn't quite the full Cheshire grin that Zack perpetually wore, but the timid smile that crossed cloud's face was a marked improvement from his stammering a moment ago. "Thanks Zack, and thank you Sephiroth SIR!"

"Hm, good enough, so tell me strife, how did you get so high in rank so fast?" Angeal had repeatedly told the general, that to the regular troopers and the population in general the 1st class SOLDIER's held a sort of "mystic" that made them unapproachable and that small talk and conversation helped to ease this, and it helped the general to understand the troopers serving under him.

"Well sir, originally I was aiming to get into SOLDIER, even took the exams. But after falling three times, the proctors told me not to come back. While I was taking the exams I was also enlisted in the regular army, and apparently the skills I was building in the exams was enough to speed my advancement."

Hearing that he had potential willing recruits being turned away because of poor exams made Sephiroth see red. After the mass desertion incident SOLDIER was hurting for personnel badly.

"Was this before or after the desertion?"

scratching his head and pausing momentarily to consider his answer cloud croaked out another uncertain answer "Both?"

Nodding his head in acceptance of the answer, Sephiroth leaned back in his seat to nurse a headache that had been building for a while now. The lack of sleep combined with the news that he had trainers doing less than their absolute best to replenish the ranks was annoying. That was something he would correct once he got back to Midgar.

The helicopter landed on a grassy field just outside of Nibelhime close enough to walk, but not so close as to disturb the residents.

Once the group consisting of Sephiroth, Zack, Tseng, and Cloud was clear of the helicopter but still a good ways off of the town the general called the group to a stop.

"Alright cloud, its time to see what you are made of." The cold monotone the general use to refer to clouds exam left the poor boy with watery knees. "First of all, Fair, Hand the boy your buster sword."

That one caught even Zack by surprise. "Uhhh... boss there is no WAY that lil ol spikey here can use the buster sword, I'M still getting used to it."

"I know that Fair, He isn't going to use it in a fight, I just want to see how strong he is now."

everyone present relaxed a hair at that, if Sephiroth was going to try and make a NORMAL

trooper try and use the buster in a test fight, well his sanity might be in question.

"Here cloud, be careful, its heavy." despite saying that Zack was holding the buster sword pommel first one handed towards cloud.

"Right... UGH! How do you use this thing!?" once he had the blade in his hands and under his control the scrawny blond looked to the general for further instruction.

"Strife, you were instructed in the katas for the basic infantry styles yes?"  
nodding his head that yes, he still remembered the forms the general continued "Pick one and show me."

A look of incredulous disbelief breifely crossed over cloud's face before it settled into a more pensive and thoughtful expression. within moments the boy began to move through a form, one that surprisingly had Sephiroth smiling. The style Cloud had chosen while obscure did qualify for what the general wanted. It was one added to the curriculum during the Wutai war, allowing even the weakest of the infantry to use an anti cavalry "Zanbatou" or horse killing sword. the style focused on mainly using the mechanical advantage the weight of the blade presented to take advantage of strong overhand swings, while also teaching how to more evenly distribute the weight of the blade by grabbing along the spine of the blade and using it more like a staff.

It took cloud nearly five minutes to run through the full kata that was taught to the infantrymen.

but he did it without ever once loosing control of the blade.

Glancing around Sephiroth saw that both Zack and Tseng had disapproving looks on their faces. This made the generals amusement all the greater. He knew what cloud had done and why.

Cloud had deliberately interpreted the generals instruction as: demonstrate a style taught to the basic infantry. Instead of: demonstrate one of the basic styles of the infantry.

BIG difference there, and by a technicality what cloud had demonstrated was within the rules, now could he verbalize that...

"Well done Strife. but why did you choose that style?"

After handing the blade back to Zack and catching his breath cloud gathered his wits for an explanation. "Well sir. the buster sword weighs nearly fifty pounds by my guess, way more than I am comfortable swinging normally. And the Zanbatou style helps to mitigate that."

A predatory smile came across the generals face, the boy was doing VERY well sofar, just a little more and the general very well may have a protege. "But that isn't a basic style taught to the infantry though Strife."

Palling slightly cloud briefly thought that he dun fucked up BAD, but then he thought back to his original reason for choosing that style in the first place. "Sir you said to use a style taught to the basic infantry, not to demonstrate a basic style of the infantry."

leaning over to whisper to Tseng Zack quietly asked. "Isnt that the same thing?"

without looking over Tseng broke into a smile, he saw what just happened here, and he heartily approved. "No Zack its not the same thing, not by any stretch of the imagination."

"Huh? How so?" Zack was openly confused now.

Before responding to the terminally confused first, Tseng stepped forward to address the general.

"General Sephiroth, if you don't want to apprentice this boy I DO."

"HUH!?" nobody was explaining anything to Zack, and the water wasn't getting any clearer for the poor boy.

"Too bad Tseng, I saw him first. Strife, from today on you are MY apprentice." The smile on the generals face was one of a predator looking at prey, completely unsettling for the one it was focused on.

"WHAT THE FUCK JUST HAPPENED!?" Zack was at his wits end, NOBODY was explaining anything, and yet somehow, cute little bumbling cloud was not only the new apprentice of the GENERAL himself, he also apparently just got a standing offer to apprentice with the leader of the turks...

fortunately for his sanity, Sephiroth decided to let Zack in on what he had just witnessed and missed completely. "Strife just demonstrated 3 VERY necessary traits for any SOLDIER, ability to take orders, adapt to unfavorable situations, and interpret orders under pressure."

"Sorry boss still not getting it." completely frustrated at this point, Zack sat down on the grass in a huff.

"Its fine Fair, in giving the buster sword to Strife, we put him in an unfavorable situation, was his estimation of its weight accurate?"

"Uhh... no actually he was low, its closer to 80 than it is fifty." scratching his head as he thought about it, Zack shrugged as he gave the answer.

"Even better. The part where Strife interpreted the instructions to his favor was the Kata he choose to demonstrate. The Zanbatou style was adapted and introduced to our infantry forces during the Wutai war, but it was never taught in the basic academy. So it is a style of our basic infantry, but not one of our basic styles."

As Zack began thinking on that and 1+1 started to make 2 his eyes went wide. "HOLY SHIT SPIKEY! That was freaking GENIUS!" finishing his statement Zack jumped to his feet and ran over to hug cloud in congratulation.

* * *

AN:

Not much of a chapter i know, but i wanted to get something out, and it looks like for the immediate future i might be updating slightly faster.

for some reason, story ideas just seem to come to me on the night shift as a security guard at a construction site...

as always, i appreciate any reviews you guys feel like tossing my way.

thanks much, and here's hoping to see more work soon.


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